NEAD
271 Dartmouth St. #2H
Boston, MA 02116
Phone: 617.266.8687
info [@] newenglandalliance.org

What can you do to support the creation of a trade advisory board?

The bill to create a trade advisory board needs legislative support! Here's who to call and what to ask for.

Thanks for your help! Below are some “talking points” followed by the text of the bill. These will help you and friends in your district to understand the importance of this legislation, and speak with more confidence to aides for your state representative and state senator.

Please encourage them to endorse the bill by calling Rep. Byron Rushing’s office at 617-722-2180.

For further information on trade agreements, speak with Byron Rushing, or call Dave Lewit of the Alliance for Democracy at 617-266-8687.

Who are your state rep and state senator? Find them online at www.WhereDoIVoteMA.com. Fill in your address. Scroll down to Representative in General Court and click on your rep’s name, which will take you his or her official web page, where you’ll find contact information (note—some new representatives don’t yet have web pages, so if there's no link simply call the State House at 617-727-1100.

Follow the same instructions to find contact info for your state senator.

Please use the phone, and talk personally to his/her legislative aide. After your talk, feel free to forward this email to the aide, so they have the bill name, contact info for Rep. Rushing, and talking points. Ask the aide to call back to let you know if your legislator will endorse the bill.

Talking points!

A Commission to Scrutinize Trade Agreements and Proposals?

• The instability of the world and national economy HAS CALLED INTO EVEN GREATER QUESTION existing trade rules which limit the authority of Massachusetts and other states and municipalities to regulate or subsidize planning, industry, services, purchasing, etc.


• Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire already have Citizen Trade Commissions in operation, and are ready to cooperate with Massachusetts and other states in the region.


• International agreements NAFTA and WTO are considered to be treaties, whose provisions OVERRIDE conflicting state and local as well as national laws.


• International trade agreements are driven chiefly by multinational corporations and achieved largely by political influence.


• Federal trade policy has been made without public oversight and rushed through Congress with minimal scrutiny and amendment.


• Although “fast track” limitations by Congress in considering trade bills has expired, NAFTA and GATS agreements, made under fast track, still stand.


• Current international agreements AND FEDERAL POLICIES favor major corporations and military expansion at the expense of jobs, local businesses, and the ENVIRONMENT


• In Massachusetts municipal authority to develop resources for public use has already been challenged by foreign corporations (Mondev vs. City of Boston) under NAFTA and the World Trade Organization (negating preference for local labor, management and materials, while exporting profits).


• Many international trade agreements bar consideration of human rights abuses and consumer information, substitute narrowly qualified tribunals for courts of law, and ignore the authority of the United Nations.


• For example, labor rights enumerated by the International Labor Organization, a UN agency, are violated SINCE THEY ARE DEFINED AS non-tariff barriers to trade by NAFTA and WTO.


• The Supreme Court of the US has frustrated the Commonwealth's moral concern for barring state purchases which would enrich an oppressive regime such as Burma.


• Overall International trade and investment has reduced the capacity of the Commonwealth in manufacturing, agriculture, and other sectors and has reduced the stability of its financial institutions.