Friends of the Earth – 2018-07-23 23:11:31
https://us.e-activist.com/page/6283/action/1
ACTION ALERT: War on Planet and Health:
Stop Trump’s Polluter-friendly NAFTA
Friends of the Earth
PETITION: Tell Congress: Don’t let Trump’s NAFTA
block sensible protections for our health and environment.
WASHINGTON, DC (July 21, 2018) — Donald Trump is renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Trump wants to use NAFTA 2.0 to lock in his rollback of essential environmental, public health, and consumer regulations. He also wants to block new safeguards related to the safety of food, chemicals, pesticides, and GMOs.
Congress could stop this attack on critical protections for people and the planet. But we need your help to urge them to act!
Trump’s NAFTA is nothing more than a giveaway to giant corporations, including the pesticide industry and other polluters.
A renegotiated NAFTA deal could prevent safety assessment and regulation of GMOs. Significant patent protections are likely to be given to corporations that make GMO seeds.
Government rules that require labels warning about health risks or environmental hazards associated with food and other consumer products could also be rolled back or weakened.
What’s more, NAFTA renegotiation could result in the rollback of regulations that have been effective in reducing exposure to chemicals associated with breast cancer, infertility and other illnesses.
The evidence is clear: Trump’s NAFTA threatens people and our planet.
The good news is, Trump’s NAFTA is increasingly unpopular with both the American public and Members of Congress. That means we have a real chance of stopping it. But we need you to speak up now.
THE LETTER
Dear Representative,
I urge you to oppose Donald Trump’s renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump’s new NAFTA is sure to undermine environmental, public health and food safeguards across North America and in our state.
NAFTA 2.0 trade tribunals would threaten people and the planet. NAFTA 2.0 rules not contained in the investment chapter would be enforced by government-to-government lawsuits before panels of trade lawyers.
Those panels have the authority to impose retaliatory trade sanctions such as higher tariffs on the exports of countries that fail to roll back regulations. This process presents a threat to sensible environmental and public health policies.
Regulatory review provisions in Trump’s NAFTA also would establish administrative institutions like a regulatory review body. This could be thought of as an international version of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, created by Ronald Reagan, which has a reputation for delaying and blocking federal agency regulations in the US.
The regulatory review process could also establish inappropriate procedures like mutual recognition of safety standards and a bureaucratic process for identifying alleged excessive burdens on business. This could slow down or stop promulgation of environmental, climate, and health regulations.
Among other negative consequences, regulatory review provisions could encourage the inappropriate use of business-friendly, cost-benefit analysis that would hinder public interest regulations. The process inherently gives disproportionate weight to quantitative data and economic costs, while diminishing the perceived importance of qualitative benefits such as saving lives, maintaining the equilibrium of the global ecosystem, and protecting wild places.
Please reject Trump’s renegotiated NAFTA.
Sincerely,
Standing with you,
Bill Waren, Senior trade analyst, Friends of the Earth
