SR1224 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR1224 LRB099 14411 MST 38508 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, U.S. trade deals for the past 25 years have been corporate-driven, incorporating rules that skew benefits to economic elites while requiring working families to bear the brunt of such policies; and

WHEREAS, The growing trade deficits, driven by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), China's accession to the World Trade Organization, and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, have displaced 700,000 jobs, 3.2 million jobs, and 75,000 jobs respectively; and

WHEREAS, U.S. employment in manufacturing dropped by 5 million from 2000 to 2015; and

WHEREAS, Jobs lost due to trade devastate families and entire communities and can permanently reduce lifetime earnings for hundreds of thousands of workers; and

WHEREAS, The long decline of the American manufacturing base, exacerbated by bad trade policies that reward outsourcing, has undermined our economic security and poses a direct threat to our national security; and

WHEREAS, The offshoring of manufacturing and service jobs deprives local and state governments of sorely needed revenues, jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions of public servants, as well as construction workers whose jobs depend upon infrastructure building, repair, and maintenance; and

WHEREAS, Under NAFTA-style trade rules, the U.S.'s annual trade deficit has increased dramatically from $70 billion in 1993, the year before NAFTA went into effect, to more than $508 billion in 2014; and

WHEREAS, The disproportionate voice of powerful global corporations in the formation of U.S. "free trade" agreements has advanced an agenda that undermines the public interest and threatens democracy; and

WHEREAS, NAFTA, and all but 2 of the U.S. trade deals that followed it, includes special legal rights for foreign investors, known as "investor-to-state dispute settlement" or ISDS, that allow foreign firms to bypass state and federal courts to challenge state and local laws, regulations, and administrative and judicial decisions in international tribunals; and

WHEREAS, Foreign investors have already used NAFTA's ISDS provisions to challenge decisions regarding local building permits, environmental regulations, and state bans on toxic chemicals and decisions of state courts; and

WHEREAS, Climate change and environmental degradation threaten communities across the globe and ISDS provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) may expose nations enacting policies to fight climate change to ISDS cases that undermine these efforts; and

WHEREAS, Promoting economic growth with equity in Illinois requires an approach that reforms the entire trade negotiation process to ensure that the voices of workers, farmers, small businesses, families, and communities are heard and their interests addressed; and

WHEREAS, The TPP has been negotiated in secret, effectively shutting state and local governments out of the process, limiting our ability to influence its rules to ensure the people of Illinois can participate in the benefits of trade; and

WHEREAS, Given the enactment of fast track trade negotiating authority, states, localities, and their citizens will have no opportunity to correct shortcomings in the TPP because its text will not be made public until it is final and can no longer be improved; and

WHEREAS, Repeating old mistakes in negotiating new trade agreements such as the TPP represents a missed opportunity to strengthen our economy, reduce income inequality, and promote sustainable growth; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we call upon our elected officials in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to oppose the TPP and any similar trade deals if they fail to restructure the misguided and failed policies of the past; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we call upon our elected officials in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to support new trade deals such as the TPP only if they do the following:

(1) protect and promote traditional state and local prerogatives and authority under our federal system, including by ensuring that states and localities will not be required to comply with certain commitments, including any restrictions on preferences for local, state, or U.S. goods or services, without prior informed consent of the legislature or local lawmaking body;

(2) ensure balanced trade and address the excessive, job-killing U.S. trade deficit;

(3) include enforceable rules against currency manipulation, which countries such as China and Japan have used to tilt the playing field in their favor;

(4) exclude investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) and other provisions that favor foreign companies over domestic ones and undermine public choices;

(5) ensure that countries cannot undercut U.S.-based producers with weaker labor and environmental laws and enforcement;

(6) ensure that the U.S. will engage in robust enforcement of trade rules, including labor and environmental rules;

(7) include strong rules of origin to promote economic growth and job creation in the U.S.;

(8) promote high standards of protection for workplaces, products, and natural resources rather than promoting a race to the bottom; and

(9) put the interests of people and the planet over the interests of private profit; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to the President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and each member of the Illinois congressional delegation.