The Trade Stories Project
For too long, debates over international trade have been dominated by corporate elites and economic ideologues, rather than rooted in the experiences of ordinary people.
The Trade Stories Project allows people who have been affected by policies and institutions like NAFTA and the WTO to share their views on a matter crucial to the global economy.
This includes displaced workers, farmers, small business owners and immigrants who have been typically excluded from the trade debate.
A Long Way to Go on Trade
On the campaign trail, then-Senator Barack Obama repeatedly pledged that one of his first acts as President would be to renegotiate failed international
trade pacts. He argued that NAFTA
had done more harm than good for the U.S. economy, and said he supported reforming the
labor, environmental, agricultural, consumer safety, public procurement and
investor rights provisions of it and other trade policies. Throughout the first year of the Obama Presidency, the Trade Stories
website featured the profiles of 52 men and women whose livelihoods were destroyed under existing trade policies — a new story of pain and courage each-and-every week. The words of displaced workers from the United States and beyond should be front-and-center as the President and others decide how to best move forward creating a new model for international trade... Week 3: Karla Chase — "We were making a profit even, and they close it. If you're not making a profit then you kind of expect [the plant to close]. 'What choice did they have, it's still a business after all.' But if you're making a profit, it's hard to understand. Why should they be closing down when they're making some money on it?" Week 14: Bill Johnson — "They gave me three weeks of notice, in which my position and basically the entire purchasing department would be moving to Singapore... But in that three weeks, they said, 'We're going to have two people from Singapore come over here and you're going to train them how to do your job.'" Week 19: Wanda Boehkme — "Money is really short. Unemployment does not reach the bill I have coming in. I no longer have health or dental insurance. The kids need money for school, for their activities. I have the doctors, the dentist. It's hard." Week 32: Linda Foster — "You're doing your best and you're giving them what they want, and it's still not good enough. It's a hard pill to swallow. Being a good workers doesn't mean squat, and that's sad." Week 42: Tony Mims — "Oh, they weren't hurting as far as money. They made a lot of money here. They did well. But they want the pot to be bigger. They get greedier. The corporate hands want more money and so... They've taken advantage of saving a buck on the backs of workers." Week 49: Hector de la Cueva — "Free trade agreements function like transnational blackmail against workers. They say to U.S. and Canadian workers that if you don't accept less rights and lower salaries, then your jobs will come to Mexico or to other countries." Week 52: John Drake — "If they could make $28 million here that was clear profit, they could make $78 million in Mexico. They told us that flat out."
Americans are rightly angry over their jobs leaving the country as a result of "free trade" policies like NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO. Increasingly, many also understand that these trade agreements are also a bad deal for working people abroad.
TAKE ACTION:
Support a New Model for International Trade
The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act—or TRADE Act, for short—presents a new, progressive vision for international trade that will help working people across the globe. Its commonsense provisions include establishing mandatory standards for future trade agreements, a process for renegotiating existing trade deals and increasing public oversight over the trade policymaking process. Urge Congress to support the TRADE Act.
President Obama on Trade
During his campaign for the White House, President Obama made concrete promises to change the nation’s international trade policy. He supported renegotiating NAFTA and CAFTA, and specifically outlined the types of problems he saw with these and other existing trade policies. Learn about the President’s promises.