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 negotiati...
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