REDWOOD NEEDLES
REDWOOD NEEDLESPresented by the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter Newsletter, The REDWOOD NEEDLES
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By Flo Ann Norvell, Mendo-Lake Group
On the receipt of a "No Fast Track" package from the National Sierra Club the alarm bells sounded and the Mendocino/Lake Group got busy on a mailing and posting of fliers.
A bill now before Congress (H.R. 2149, the Trade Promotion Authority Act of 2001) would grant President Bush supreme authority to make Fast Track Secret Trade Deals without debate and without checks and balances. Secret trade deals will be out of your hands and beyond your vote. Why should you care? Fast Track will bring you: dirty air to breathe, dirty water to drink, dying oceans, liquidated forests, and lawsuits that will cost American taxpayers billions of dollars. Fast Track means secret trade deals and secret courts. If Congress gives the President Fast Track Trade Authority, you might as well tear up the U. S. Constitution. World Trade laws would supersede our own health and environmental laws.
The destruction of your planet would be brought to you by your not so friendly transnational corporations and their North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and their World Trade Organization (WTO) and there would be nothing you could do about this destruction if you give the President Fast Track Trade authority.
Just one example: secret trade agreements promote international commerce by undercutting environmental laws and health standards. Here in California, Governor Davis decided to phase out the poisonous gasoline additive MTBE because the suspected carcinogen was leaking from gasoline stations into the ground water and wells. Many homeowners first learned about MTBE when their water began to smell and taste like turpentine.
In response to the MTBE phase-out, the Methanex Corporation, a Canadian company that makes the methanol that goes into MTBE, used a little-known NAFTA provision to sue the United States government for nearly $1 billion. Methanex charged that California's decision to protect its water had hurt the company's business prospects. In other words any barrier to trade (like U.S. environmental laws) can bring a lawsuit to a secret court and cost U.S. taxpayers billions.
Who To Call: Your Congressional Representative toll free 1-800-393-1082 (courtesy of AFL-CIO) or dial 202-224-3121. Ask for your Representative's office. You could also write a short letter to the editor (less than 200 words) using a few of the points raised in this article. Message: Vote NO on Fast Track Trade Authority. Vote NO on H.R. 2149.
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