SF 834

1st Engrossment - 84th Legislature (2005 - 2006) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

  1.1                             A resolution
  1.2             memorializing Congress to oppose the Central American 
  1.3             Free Trade Agreement. 
  1.4      
  1.5      WHEREAS, the United States government has negotiated a 
  1.6   Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) to expand the 
  1.7   North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) model throughout the 
  1.8   Western Hemisphere; and 
  1.9      WHEREAS, CAFTA will be submitted to Congress for approval 
  1.10  this year; and 
  1.11     WHEREAS, the provisions of CAFTA could substantially harm 
  1.12  Minnesota's $2 billion per year sugar beet industry, which 
  1.13  provides 34,000 direct and indirect jobs; and 
  1.14     WHEREAS, Minnesota has suffered the loss of thousands of 
  1.15  manufacturing jobs under NAFTA; and 
  1.16     WHEREAS, CAFTA does not contain comprehensive and 
  1.17  enforceable protections for workers, the environment, and our 
  1.18  democratic process; and 
  1.19     WHEREAS, without setting enforceable standards for minimum 
  1.20  labor and environmental protections, CAFTA would escalate a race 
  1.21  to the bottom in which nations compete for foreign investment by 
  1.22  offering the lowest wages and most lax labor and environmental 
  1.23  protections to the detriment of their populations, thus causing 
  1.24  further loss of Minnesota manufacturing jobs; and 
  2.1      WHEREAS, CAFTA includes subsidies rules that potentially 
  2.2   conflict with state or local lawmaking to promote economic 
  2.3   development; and 
  2.4      WHEREAS, the investment provisions of CAFTA give foreign 
  2.5   investors greater rights than investors from Minnesota and other 
  2.6   parts of the United States; and 
  2.7      WHEREAS, the investment provisions of CAFTA potentially 
  2.8   conflict with traditional local land-use decision-making ability 
  2.9   and negatively affect state and local powers; and 
  2.10     WHEREAS, the investment provisions of CAFTA could be used 
  2.11  to undermine Minnesota's protection of our environment; NOW, 
  2.12  THEREFORE, 
  2.13     BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota 
  2.14  that it requests the Minnesota Congressional Delegation to 
  2.15  oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement. 
  2.16     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the 
  2.17  State of Minnesota is directed to prepare copies of this 
  2.18  memorial and transmit them to the Speaker and the Clerk of the 
  2.19  United States House of Representatives, the President and the 
  2.20  Secretary of the United States Senate, the United States 
  2.21  Secretary of State, the United States Trade Representative, and 
  2.22  Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in Congress.