{"id":709,"date":"2007-03-29T14:07:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-29T14:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godspolitics\/2007\/03\/elizabeth-palmberg-not-so-fast.html"},"modified":"2007-03-29T14:07:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-29T14:07:00","slug":"elizabeth-palmberg-not-so-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/03\/elizabeth-palmberg-not-so-fast.html","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Palmberg: Not So Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week Congress started to inject just a bit of sanity and morality into the discussion about proposed trade agreements with Colombia, Peru, Panama, and South Korea. A congressional proposal<\/a>, whose full text has not been publicly released, would seek to incorporate labor standards, and some recognition of environmental concerns and poor countries\u2019 right to generic lifesaving medicines, into trade agreements.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a great start \u2013 but the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, Charles Rangel, is signaling that he thinks Congress can work out a deal with the White House on those trade agreements soon, possibly as early as this week. That accelerated timetable is a spectacularly bad idea: There\u2019s no way that the agreement texts, which are deeply flawed, can be fixed in so short a time. Here are a few reasons why:<\/p>\n

1) In trade agreements, the devil is in the details<\/strong>. Who knew, when NAFTA was being considered, that a single phrase among the text\u2019s hundreds of pages would give corporations the right to sue governments when health and environmental laws affected profits<\/a>? (Hey, overworked congressional staffer \u2013 what part of \u201ctantamount to expropriation\u201d did you not understand?) It\u2019s great to talk about labor, the environment, and essential medicines in a press release, but you can\u2019t put all that in enforceable trade-agreement writing in a few weeks.<\/p>\n

2) The congressional press release<\/a> doesn\u2019t mention many important problems<\/strong> with the current trade agreement model, including conventional trade agreements\u2019 devastating effect on other countries\u2019 small farmers (many of whom will be pushed to undocumented migration or coca farming in order to feed their families).<\/p>\n

3) Current trade agreements are the result of a deeply flawed process<\/strong>, in which corporations get privileged input into negotiations, while advocates for the poor are shut out<\/a>. No last-minute deal between Congress and the president can represent all the voices that need to be at the table.<\/p>\n

So keep all of those affected by trade agreements in your prayers and thoughts \u2013 and watch for Sojourners\u2019 special issue on trade justice, released next month!<\/p>\n

(Note: Unlike normal bills, trade agreements are rejected or approved by Congress after they are negotiated by the executive branch; the fact that the president has signed the trade agreements with Colombia and Peru simply means he has sent them to Congress, not that they are a done deal).<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Palmberg<\/strong> is an Assistant Editor for Sojourners<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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