683 Organizations Send Joint Letter to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer
Contact
Arthur Stamoulis, Citizens Trade Group, (202) 494-8826, arthur@citizenstrade.org
WASHINGTON, DC — As the mandatory, six-year review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal approaches, hundreds of labor and civil society organizations across the United States wrote to the Trump administration today with shared views on the significant changes needed for the pact to benefit working families and communities.
“Good-paying jobs continue to pour out of the United States under President Trump’s USMCA trade deal,” said Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of Citizens Trade Campaign, the coalition of labor, environmental, family farm, faith, and consumer organizations that organized the letter. “The upcoming USMCA review is a chance to fix the USMCA’s significant problems or to get out of the pact altogether.”
The USMCA is President Donald J. Trump’s revised version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) from his first term in office. At the time, Trump called the USMCA “the greatest trade deal ever,” but the U.S. trade deficit has increased under the USMCA relative to the original NAFTA.
The USMCA contains provisions requiring the three governments to review the pact at six years, and which point countries can suggest possible amendments to the agreement. Chapter-specific reviews of the labor and environment chapter are to take place during the fifth year of the agreement, which begins on July 1.
The 683-group letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer details changes needed to those and other chapters of the USMCA in order to end the offshoring of good-paying jobs; raise wages across the region; strengthen rural communities; address root causes of migration and displacement; stop abuses by Big Tech; shut down special rights for foreign investors; and make medicine more affordable.
The letter also urges the nation’s top trade official to adopt a transparent and participatory process for the USMCA review.
Signers on the letter include: the American Federation of Teachers, American Sustainable Business Network, Communications Workers of America, International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, League of Conservation Voters, National Consumers League, National Family Farm Coalition, National Organization for Women, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, Trade Justice Education Fund, United Auto Workers (UAW), United Church of Christ, United Steelworkers (USW) and hundreds of others.
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