WTO, TPP, FTA, CAFTA, NAFTA: Translating the Alphabet Soup of Globalization into Advocacy for Change

Increasingly, Americans recognize that today's "trade" agreements directly affect their day-to-day lives in myriad ways. Indeed, many here and abroad have lived experience of the problems – unsafe food and products, unaffordable medicine, limited access to health service, obstacles to toxics bans, tobacco control and work place safety policies - caused by our current trade model. While polling shows one of the few issues that unites Americans across otherwise intractable political divides is opposition to more NAFTA-WTO style trade pacts, few Americans think that there is anything they can do about it. Yet, in the U.S. and around the world, vibrant civil society campaigns have created effective methodologies to stop more of the same damaging policies and promote new approaches. And, given the disproportionate role the U.S. government and U.S. corporations play in imposing the current damaging model worldwide, changing the U.S. approach on trade is essential. Trade pact threats to our families' health and safety are among the most powerful issues around which to build an undeniable demand for such change. This presentation will provide a brief guided tour through the aspects of the agreements that limit the policy space needed to ensure health and safety, translating arcane trade jargon and sharing the most compelling examples of damage that has already occurred. Participants will learn about campaigns now underway here and abroad that can make difference and how to get involved.