Title
Calling upon a variety of public officials and decision makers to monitor, review and revise the proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas to insure that the public services, regulatory powers, and procurement policies of local governments are preserved.
Body
WHEREAS, Trade agreements pertaining to services, investment and government procurement constrain the exercise of local government authority to protect the health and welfare of its citizens; and
WHEREAS, The United States government through the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is presently negotiating multilateral, regional and bilateral trade agreements covering all these areas, including the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) extending NAFTA to 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere; and
WHEREAS, The National League of Cities has resolved that "the Administration and Congress should consult with state and local officials prior to negotiating any provisions of the FTAA to ensure that trade negotiators do not undermine the scope of local governmental authority under the Constitution..."; and
WHEREAS, The proposal for the FTAA investment agreement is based on current provisions of NAFTA Chapter 11 on investment which:
* empowers foreign investors to sue nation-states for compensation before closed-door arbitration panels that follow NAFTA and international law, not domestic constitutional law.
* creates foreign investor rights that exceed the constitutional protections for domestic investors; and
WHEREAS, In such NAFTA claims against the United States, foreign investors have challenged core functions of state and local government, including regulatory power to protect groundwater (California), the power of civil juries to use punitive damages to deter corporate fraud (Mississippi), the right of states to regulate in the public interest and to claim sovereign immunity (Massachuse...
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