Congress Passes Another Bad Trade Deal

Boulder, CO -- Despite our gigantic $700+ billion trade deficit and increasing pressures on the middle class, Congress passed yet another "free" trade agreement, this time with Peru. The recent deal with Peru, with whom we have an existing trade deficit, is another example of Washington's disinterest in stopping the hemorrhaging of good-paying jobs from our economy. The Peru Free Trade Agreement follows in the failed footsteps of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and will result in a larger trade deficit, the eventual loss of manufacturing jobs, textile and farming industries, and the potential for the importation of unsafe foods.

As we have seen in the case of NAFTA, foreign markets seem to be less open to American goods. Instead, large corporations use access to those markets to export jobs and pay foreign workers only a fraction of the wages paid to American workers. The trend of job loss puts serious strain on the economic standards of Americans and has proven to be a race to the bottom.

"The race to the bottom is not just in wages," says Jonathan Hill, Chairman of the America First Party. "It is also a race to the bottom by continually out sourcing our national wealth and industrial power. If this continues, we will no longer have the industrial capacity to produce the goods needed to correct our trade deficit. Some warn that we have already reached this point of no return. The fallacy of free trade, which is neither fair nor free, has dealt a major blow to our industrial sector and threatens our national independence."

"These terrible agreements do not benefit the citizens of either country, as NAFTA has proved. The benefactors are mega-corporations which can produce their goods with fewer environmental restrictions and a pittance for a wage," added J.C. Schweingrouber, Public Relations Chairman. "We are watching the de-industrialization of our own nation right before our eyes. No nation has ever survived and prospered without a healthy industrial base. Our Congress seems to be ignorant of that fact."

The America First Party calls for an immediate end to failed free trade agreements and a return to reasonable trade policies mandated by the Constitution. Eliminating the trade deficit is necessary for our long term national security.