The clock is ticking on NAFTA renegotiation, and as with the TPP, grassroots pressure on Congress is essential if we are going to have a trade agreement that improves on the original text. 

There are a lot of ways that a new NAFTA could be made worse, but for the purposes of asking for your Congress members' support for a better deal, there are four items that we must all demand:

● No Investor-State-Dispute-Settlement provisions (ISDS),
● Protect important “Buy American” and “Buy Local” public procurement preferences,
● Include much stronger and enforceable labor, environmental, and public health standards in the agreement itself, and
● Be negotiated in a democratic, accountable and transparent process.

Now is the time to start getting allies together for a visit with your member of Congress during the August recess. Start with three easy steps:

1) Think about local allies whom you can reach out to. Some constituents groups will be on the right side of this issue already, and already active. Those groups will include labor unions and labor councils, and some national groups that were actively opposed to the Trans Pacific Partnership, such as Electronic Frontier Foundation or the Sierra Club. Other, newer, post-election grassroots groups might need you to provide some background on the trade justice fights of the last few years but would likely be your allies. You might also make local contacts through the National Farmers Union or your local organic farming association. Local peace groups and immigrant rights organizations are also good prospects. Make contact and invite them to join in a constituent visit. 

2) Let your Representative's district office know that you'd like an appointment. You will probably want to ask for a half-hour of time for your group to state your case, drop off relevant materials, and answer any questions that your Representative or his/her staff might have. If your Representative was a strong opponent of the TPP and can be trusted to advocate for workers and the environment in a new NAFTA agreement, you may only need time to say "thanks for your good work—please make this issue a priority this term!" 

3) Show that you represent a broad constituency. Signatures on these postcards emphasize that trade is an issue for voters in your Representative's district. Print some out from this file for tabling and canvassing, and keep a few with you at all times to get signatures from friends. Don't be shy. Trade is a transpartisan issue and you will find Democrats, Republicans, and independent voters all supportive of good trade policy, though sometimes for different reasons, including jobs, the environment, and the threat ISDS poses to national sovereignty and local decision-making.

Outreach, setting a date, and showing support will put you in good shape for a Congressional visit during the recess. Start now to make an impact! 

Good news for local food in Maine! On Friday, June 16, Gov. Paul LePage signed LD 725, an Act to Recognize Local Control Regarding Food Systems. The bill will become law 90 days after adjournment, but towns can pass Local Food and Community Self Governance Ordinances (LFCSGO) now with assurance that the state will recognize their validity. Right now, some six towns are working on local LFCSGO campaigns, which defend the legality of face-to-face, farmer-to-consumer sales of meat, dairy, and prepared products. Nineteen towns have already passed the ordinance.

Local Food RULES organizers encourage anyone who's thinking about introducing the ordinance to share this good news with town officials, and to contact them with questions--they are prepared to help. 

In the meantime, the Local Food RULES campaign asks Maine residents to write to the Governor and thank him for his signature, and to contact state legislators as well, to thank them for their votes. The bill passed unanimously in the Senate, and 108-35 in the House. You can find out how your representative voted here.  
 
In a statement, organizers thanked the bill sponsor, Sen. Troy Jackson for introducing it and guiding it through the process; as Minority Leader in the Senate, noting that it was work on top of a very busy session and he gave this issue a very generous amount of time. They also recognized co-sponsors Rep. Michelle Dunphy, Rep. Craig Hickman, Sen. Brian Langley, Rep. John Martin, and Sen. David Miramant.
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Organizers also thanked the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, and the countless people who passed LFCSGOs locally, or responded to "constant please to write to people. Grassroots democracy at its best!"

Recently, the ​office of the US Trade Representative solicited public commentary on NAFTA renegotiation. Both the national Alliance for Democracy and the Alliance's Portland Chapter submitted statements.

The Portland Alliance statement reads:

As the US begins to re-negotiate NAFTA, the Alliance for Democracy in Portland, Oregon requests that negotiations be public, and transparent, and  benefit all people in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.  The negotiations must be open, public and transparent. Any negotiations which is done by the 500 corporate trade advisers only will be rejected by the people. Representative of the people must be present, participating fully and have a meaningful part of all negotiations. They must not be excluded from any talks, even if the talks are not about the environment or labor. The people's representatives must be on an equal footing with the corporate representatives.  
  
Negotiations which happen behind closed doors are undemocratic and will result in an agreement which benefits those behind the doors, not the people of our three nations. The result of any such negotiations will be rejected by the people.  
  

• The negotiations objectives must 
• Address the needs of the people for a healthy environment, addressing the causes and effects of climate change,  with the goal of reducing carbon in the environment and eliminating the use of fossil fuels and encourage the use of renewable non-nuclear energy sources,  
• Address the need for equality among people by including enforceable labor standards in the agreement itself and provisions which reduce dramatically the income and wealth gaps among the peoples of our three nations and within each nation, and  
•  Enhance democracy and democratic practices by removing Chapter 11 in its entirety. Chapter 11 provides for secret trade tribunals to settle “trade” disputes filed by multi-national corporations against national governments. 

  
It is not our belief that NAFTA can be renegotiated and achieve our objectives. In fact, we must repeal NAFTA. And then if we need to establish new tariffs or quotas in order to facilitate trade among our nations,  then new treaties should be negotiated and approved in the Senate according to our Constitution.  

The national Alliance submitted the following: 

NAFTA renegotiation presents an opportunity to fix a flawed trade deal, but only if the US Trade Representative and the White House are determined to stand up for jobs, environmental protection and climate stability, small farms and food safety, and the rights of nations, states, and municipalities to regulate corporate activity to protect public health, natural resources, in particular our surface and groundwater sources on which all life depends, and local economies. 

The Alliance for Democracy stands with other civic, environmental, consumer and labor organizations to demand that a new NAFTA incorporate the following changes:

• Eliminate Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions that allow corporations to attack ordinances and regulatory decisions before secret tribunals.
•  Add binding labor, wage and environmental standards to a new NAFTA, including requirements and mechanisms for enforcement. Eliminate rules that incentivize offshoring jobs.
• Include robust, binding and enforceable standards for food, product, and transportation safety, requiring imported goods and transport to meet the highest domestic standards.
• Include protection for "buy local" and "buy American" ordinances, which protect and strengthen national and local economies.
• Eliminate agricultural rules that harm small farmers and the local food systems that they support. 
• Most importantly, negotiations should be transparent, and drafts of agreements available for public and congressional examination. 
• Finally, a revamped NAFTA should not be passed by Congress under expedited Trade Promotion Authority, or Fast Track rules, but instead should be fully examined, deliberated, and debated by Congress and the public before it goes to a vote.

NAFTA has resulted in the direct loss of almost 1 million jobs in the US, as certified by the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program. In addition it has displaced millions of Mexican farmers and workers, and locked Canada into climate and environmentally-damaging fossil fuel export quotas. What has been a boon for multinational corporations has been a bust for US workers and for the cities and towns that once dominated US manufacturing.

None of this has surprised the many millions of Americans who were opposed to NAFTA when it first passed, and have been working to block subsequent multinational trade deals, including the Multinational Agreement on Investments, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and the Trans Pacific Partnership, ever since. 
We are not "anti-trade." But we are completely opposed to any trade policy that privileges corporate profits over the lives and well-being of citizens and the communities in which they live and work, or the ecological systems that sustain all life. 
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NAFTA renegotiation represents a chance to affirm the importance of jobs, local economies, strong communities, and the environment, and to be a model of what a "fair trade" agreement can do.