To Support a Fair Trade Model and Opposing the Colombia, Panama and South Korea Free Trade Agreements

WHEREAS, the League of United Latin American Citizens is this nation’s oldest and largest Latino organization, founded in Corpus Christi, Texas on February 17, 1929; and

WHEREAS, LULAC throughout its history has committed itself to the principles that Latinos have equal access to opportunities in employment, education, housing and healthcare; and

WHEREAS, LULAC supports a new U.S. trade policy that creates living-wages, sustainable jobs for people in the U.S. and trade partners countries white promoting democracy, human rights, labor standards, a healthy environment, and access to essential services; and

WHEREAS, LULAC opposes the U.S. Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA), U.S. Colombia FTA and U.S. Panama FTA, and it has in the past opposed the U.S. Peru FTAs and the Central America FTA (CAFTA) because these pacts did not meet these goals; and

WHEREAS, LULAC has succeeded in bringing to national attention to how agriculture provisions in the North American FTA (NAFTA) and CAFTA have forced rural Latin Americans to leave their countries and families, risking their lives crossing the U.S. border to be able to support their loved ones back home; and

WHEREAS, since NAFTA the U.S. has lost over 5 million family-supporting manufacturing jobs and whereas the country cannot sustain further job loss of this magnitude, especially when unemployment disproportionately affects Latino families and other people of color; and

WHEREAS, the foreign investor provisions and their private enforcement included in pacts like NAFTA and CAFTA threaten the sovereignty and the environment of Latin American nations, and their control of their natural resources; and

WHEREAS, President Obama committed during his campaign to create a new American trade model that could deliver benefits to more people and remedy these problems, but to date has not implemented these commitments; and

WHEREAS, a comprehensive, bipartisan reform bill- the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act- that would deliver on Obama's commitment by addressing agricultural displacement, job loss and other past trade deal problems was supported by LULAC and over 150 members of Congress; and

WHEREAS, the Obama administration has announced that it will send to Congress three NAFTA-style trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the League of United Latin American Citizens will continue to fully and actively support a new fair trade model based on the TRADE Act; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, opposes ratification of FTAs with Colombia, Panama and South Korea leftover from the Bush administration; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy this resolution be provided to the President of the United States, the Members of the appropriate Congressional committees, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Secretary of Commerce, The Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Approved this 1st day of July 2011.

Margaret Moran
LULAC National President