Washington
Fair Trade
Coalition
The Washington Fair Trade Coalition (WFTC) is a coalition of over 60 Washington labor, faith, environmental, farmer, and social justice groups that are committed to creating a fair, balanced, and sustainable global trading system.
News & Analysis
Wells Fargo Rally at Westlake Park in Seattle
Join us in solidarity with the Communications Workers of America in protesting Wells Fargo's continued outsourcing of U.S. jobs and poor treatment of workers at home and abroad. We'll be at Westlake Park in Seattle from 11:00am-1:00pm. For more information, check out...
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Join us in demanding a better NAFTA: Organizational Sign On Letter
Trade agreements like NAFTA set rules for the global economy, with significant impacts on jobs and wages, the environment, human rights, food safety, access to medicine, and more. Right now, corporate lobby groups have united in a major campaign pushing for the NAFTA...
read morewww.sierraclub.org/compass/2018/04/trump-s-trade-deal-gift-climate-polluters
This morning the Sierra Club released this report on NAFTA and climate policy. As the NAFTA renegotiation intensifies, so does the climate crisis. NAFTA and other free trade agreements lock in continued use of fossil fuels and make it less possible for governments to pass climate-friendly policies.
"We must replace NAFTA with a deal that prioritizes people over polluters – centering those hit hardest by the fossil fuel economy: working families, immigrants, women, people of color, Indigenous groups, and climate-impacted communities. What would a North American trade deal look like if it prioritized the needs and aspirations of our communities, not the profit margins of CEOs?"
#ReplaceNAFTA
Trump’s Trade Deal: A Gift to Climate Polluters?
sierraclub.org
Could a trade deal prolong the climate damage furthered by Donald Trump? Unfortunately, yes. A trinational report published today, NAFTA 2.0: For People Or Polluters?, unveils new climate hazards hidden in the Trump administration’s agenda for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement ...
After withdrawing from the TPP, Trump announced today that he is reconsidering his decision and may try to get back in.
His message across the board has been that he would aim to stop the outsourcing of US jobs. Re-entering a trade agreement that would outsource more jobs is entirely opposite of this message.
Donald Trump's message on trade changes everyday. Regardless of his stance on NAFTA or TPP or tariffs, we'll keep opposing corporate-centric trade policy and pushing for trade policy that puts people and the planet first.
We killed TPP under Obama, and we'll kill it again. #ZombieTPP #NoTPP
mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/politics/trump-trans-pacific-partnership.html
Trump Proposes Rejoining Trans-Pacific Partnership
nytimes.com
The president said his advisers would look into rejoining a trade deal he withdrew from last year, as the White House tries to help farmers who will be hurt by its trade measures.
"The irony in the administration imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum is that one of the U.S.'s main complaints about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) involves Canada's protection of its dairy industry. Canada's production quotas prevent farmers from under- or over-producing milk and limit the amount of dairy that can be imported without tariffs. The policy takes farmers' cost of production into consideration and pays them a fair price, stabilizing prices and supply. This guarantees a fair price to consumers while ensuring a fresh, local milk supply from family farms and does not involve any taxpayer-funded subsidies...
There is no question that the time has come to reevaluate our nation’s trade agreements. Let’s start with the core of life here and around the world — food production.
We can demand that trade agreements protect our nation’s family farms, the environment, labor rights, and countries’ food sovereignty."
thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/379554-global-trade-can-make-or-break-american-farmers
Global trade can make or break American farmers,
thehill.com
Agricultural dumping encourages overproduction, trapping family farmers in a never-ending need for higher yields.
Trump wants us to think he implemented tariffs because he stands with working people in this country. His record says otherwise.
"While the posturing gets the headlines, Trump has quietly rigged the rules against workers even more. Even if the tariffs are actually implemented and expanded — neither of which is at all certain as this is written — they will have negligible effect compared with what Republicans and the president wrote into their tax bill. First, they gave companies that had parked profits and pushed jobs offshore to avoid taxes a $500 billion tax break. More destructively, in the future, the law exempts from U.S. taxes a large share of the foreign profits made by U.S. corporations, and taxes the remainder at half the rate companies pay for profits earned at home. This is a direct, outrageous incentive for companies to move jobs and operations offshore or cook their books to report profits abroad.
On trade — as on his promises to working people on health care, protecting Medicare and Social Security, passing a tax cut that would only benefit working people, ending wars without victory and more — Trump is running a con. Neither Democrats nor the media should get distracted by the show; instead they should expose the harsh reality behind the curtain."
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dont-be-fooled-by-trumps-tariffs-hes-running-a-con/2018/03/13/833...
Opinion | Don’t be fooled by Trump’s tariffs. He’s running a con.
washingtonpost.com
While his posturing gets the headlines, the president has quietly rigged the rules against workers even more.
Current Campaign
Free Trade Facts
The Impact Of Free Trade Policy In Washington State
Manufacturing Jobs Lost in Washington State
Jobs Lost due to the Rising Trade Deficit With Mexico
Current Free Trade policy has proven to be a losing battle for workers, farmers, and communities in WA State and around the world.
Why Should I Care?
- Mexican farmers unable to compete with cheaper American
corn lose their land and migrate to cities to find work in maquilladoras
(sweatshops) or to the US and WA State as farm workers
- 65,193 workers were certified under Trade Adjustment Assistance
1994-2011 as directly losing their job because of US trade policy (US DoL statistics).
positions associated with these jobs such as drivers, suppliers and
small businesses do not qualify and are not counted.
- Mexican farmers unable to compete with cheaper American
corn lose their land and migrate to cities to find work in maquilladoras (sweatshops) or to the US and WA State as farm workers
Fair Trade
Not Free Trade
What Would It Look Like?
For too long, U.S. trade policy has benefited transnational corporations at the expense of workers’ rights, consumer safety and the environment at home and abroad. The Washington Fair Trade Coalition, working with local, national, and international partners, aims to build a new model of trade, a model that supports our communities and our world. What could that look like?
