Title
RESOLUTION OPPOSING THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP FREE TRADE AGREEMENT.
Body
CITY PROPOSAL:
WHEREAS, U.S. trade deals for the past 25 years have been corporate driven, which has serious impacted working families; and
WHEREAS, the growing trade deficits, driven by the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”), China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, have displaced millions of jobs; and
WHEREAS, U.S. employment in manufacturing dropped by 5 million jobs from 2000 to 2015; and
WHEREAS, the city of Duluth unemployment rate is 4.4 percent; and
WHEREAS, the poverty rate in Duluth is 22.1 percent which requires the expenditure of public funds to assist families in crisis; and
WHEREAS, the offshoring of manufacturing and service jobs deprives local and state governments of needed revenues, jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions of workers whose jobs depend upon infrastructure building, repair and maintenance; and
WHEREAS, the disproportionate voice of powerful global corporations in the formation of U.S. “free trade” agreements has advanced an agenda that undermines the public interest and threatens democracy; and
WHEREAS, NAFTA and all but two of the U.S. trade deals that followed it include special legal rights for foreign investors, known as investor-to-state dispute settlements (“ISDS”), that allow foreign firms to bypass state and federal courts to challenge state and local laws, regulations, and administrative and judicial decisions in international tribunals; and
WHEREAS, the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement (“TPP”) has been negotiated in secret, effectively shutting state and local governments out of the process, limiting our ability to influence its rules to ensure the people of Duluth can participate in the benefits of trade; and
WHEREAS, promoting economic growth with equity in Duluth requires an approach that reforms the trade negotiation process to ensure that voices of workers, farmers, small businesses, families and communities are heard and their interests addressed.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Duluth City Council calls upon our elected officials in the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives to oppose the TPP and any similar trade deals.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Duluth City Council calls upon our elected officials in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to support new trade deals such as the TPP only if they will:
• Exclude investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) and other provisions that favor foreign companies over domestic ones and undermine public choices;
• Include strong rule of origin to promote economic growth and job creation in the U.S.;
• Promote high standards of protection for workplaces, products, and natural resources rather than promoting a race to the bottom; and
• Put the interests of people and the planet over the interests of private profit.
Statement of Purpose
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: The purpose of this resolution is to urge legislators in the United States Senate and House of Representatives to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement and other trade agreements which undermine the labor and environmental laws of the United States, as well as give multinational corporation unprecedented authority to ignore state and local laws and regulations.