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Posted by SCapozzola on November 8th, 2008

The trade message is catching on.

That’s the conclusion of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, according to an analysis of this past Tuesday’s national elections.

With 3.5 million manufacturing jobs lost since 2000, and incidents of unsafe imports on the rise, Americans have grown increasingly aware that U.S. trade policy is inextricably linked to economic and national security. And their concerns about job safety and tainted imports are showing up at the ballot box.

Public Citizen’s report, ‘Fair Trade Gets an Upgrade,’ notes that candidates who “ran on a platform of fundamental overhaul of U.S. trade and globalization policies including a growing number of Republicans” triumphed in the elections. Congress saw an increase “of at least 31 fair trade supporters” a number that may increase following the results of several undecided races.

Specifically, the study analyzed 130 competitive or open seat races and found 34 fair-trade seats gained in the House of Representatives and five in the Senate.

Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch division, summed up the findings: “The 2008 election was a veritable tipping point for fair-trade issues, which just reinforces what polls have increasingly shown: The public has had it with the current race-to-the-bottom trade and globalization model, and they voted against those who support it and for those who say they will replace it.”

The incoming 111th Congress will have its hands full on a troubling array of issues, with the economy clearly at the fore. ManufactureThis finds encouragement in the growing momentum of the fair trade movement.

Read the full report by clicking here.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at 12:42 am and is filed under Enforcing Trade Laws, Manufacturing in the U.S.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Momentum”

Dan Erwin Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 5:42 am
It strikes me that though the report designs a set of intriguing data, it would be very useful for the public to gain transparency on all the data regarding free trade. We seem to get the chamber of commerce orientation or the union orientation, but never all the data, with its relevant interpretations and conclusions. All this will be necessary eventually for congress to come up with a bipartisan policy. And it really does need to be bipartisan to get national support, and slow down the inevitable and irrational sniping. We are in a crisis, and that’s a poor time for ideology.

Momentum

One Response to “Momentum”

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