A trade agreement should never be a pretext to violence and looting.
Never! Never! Never!
The passage of the Peru FTA, which was overwhelmingly opposed in the United States and Peru, is bad foreign policy, bad domestic policy and bad politics. Both of Peru’s labor federations, its major indigenous people’s organization and its archbishop called on the U.S. Congress to oppose the deal based on the damage it was projected to cause Peru’s small farmers and environment.
They were right in voicing their alarm. Too bad no one listened.
Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois supported it. Clinton’s and Obama’s support for the Peru FTA – after both opposed the 2005 Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which contained identical provisions, needs to be re-examined. President Obama needs to take a long hard look at the death and destruction policies he apparently supports are causing for the native peoples of Peru and he needs to do it now and stop the killing.
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