Bush Pushes ANOTHER Bad Trade Deal—This Time With Peru

by James Parks, Aug 8, 2006

The Bush anti-worker trade brigade is at it again—pushing another bad trade deal. This time, the pact is with Peru, and like all the other deals this administration has made, this one includes no real labor rights guarantees and no mechanism to create good jobs here or in Peru, while offering weak environmental protections.

Even the Bush State Department admits Peru has weak labor laws that fail to protect workers’ rights and restrict workers’ freedom to form unions. In addition, child labor is widespread, and the minimum wage fails to provide a decent standard of living.

The Peru deal is just the latest in a series of Bush trade debacles. This summer, the House and Senate approved the Oman Free Trade Agreement (OFTA), opposed by the AFL-CIO and more than 350 labor, religious, consumer, farm and environmental groups because–like the Peru Free Trade Agreement–the OFTA lacks strong and enforceable labor and environmental standards and likely will cost jobs in the United States and will do nothing to protect the rights of workers in Oman.

The Bush White House regularly claims other countries don’t want enforceable workers’ rights in the trade deals. But they can’t sing that tune this time. Last year, Peru President Alejandro Toledo offered to include internationally recognized basic labor rights standards from the International Labor Organization, including the right to form unions. But according to Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the Bush administration rejected Toledo’s position because the U.S. would have to change some of its own laws to be in compliance.

Both the House Ways and Means and the Senate Finance committees held informal markups on the bill last month before the lawmakers went home for the August recess. Next, those committees will hold an actual markup on the implementing legislation for the Peru FTA, which would be followed by a floor vote at some point.

The Republican leadership is not saying when it wants to bring the Peru FTA to the floor, so it’s important that union members remain vigilant and urge their representatives and senators to oppose the bill. During the recess, meet with your legislator and tell him or her that the Peru FTA is bad for U.S. and Peruvian workers.

In a letter to the Senate Finance Committee, AFL-CIO Legislation Director Bill Samuel says the Peru deal is a step backwards:

Like the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the Peru FTA’s labor provisions constitute a significant step backward from existing labor rights provisions in the U.S.–Jordan FTA. In the Peru agreement, only one labor rights obligation—the obligation for a government to enforce its own labor laws—is  actually enforceable.

American workers are willing to support increased trade if the rules that govern it promote fairness, stimulate growth, create jobs, and protect fundamental rights.  The AFL-CIO is committed to fighting for better trade policies that benefit U.S. workers and the U.S. economy. We urge you to vote against this U.S.-Peru FTA and begin work on a more just economic and social relationship with Peru.

Less than a week after the Oman deal was approved, top-down global trade talks between the Bush administration and foreign trade ministers to rewrite the rules of global trade under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) collapsed. The AFL-CIO and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions said the talks, which lasted for five years, broke down because they failed to take into account the needs of working people.

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