We need your help to change the future of trade policy. 

Last year, with your support, over 80 members of the U.S. House and Senate cosponsored landmark legislation setting forth a progressive vision for future trade agreements. The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act framed a new and bold debate, marking out the policy space for a more balanced way to expand trade.  

We now need you to urge your congressional members to once again cosponsor the 2009 TRADE act. 

We expect this groundbreaking initiative to be reintroduced soon. Can you please email, call or fax your members of congress today, and ask them to sign on as cosponsors? (A sample message is located below.) 

First put forward by Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Mike Michaud, "The TRADE Act" enjoyed support from hundreds of faith, farm, labor and environmental groups last year. In February, over 350 organizations also wrote congress and urged backing for the 2009 TRADE Act, saying it "offers a helpful roadmap for new policies that could rebuild a consensus in favor of expanded trade." 

But to bring about real change, we need you to contact your elected officials, and ask them to support trade we can all believe in. Be sure to leave your home address and to ask for a written response.  

Here are three ways to do so: 

  * Contact your members of congress by internet. Use our simple form to personalize a message to all of your members in the House and Senate.
  * Contact your members of congress by phone. Call 202-224-3121 and tell the capitol switchboard operator to connect you to your member's office. Ask confidently to speak to the "Trade L.A.", and request that the member cosponsor the TRADE Act. There's a sample script below. Be sure to leave your address.
  * Contact your member by mail. If you want to go old school, visit www.congress.org to send paper snail mail. Type in your zip code, click on representative, and go to the "contact" tab. Send a postcard or letter to the Washington D.C. postal address.

More Background on the 2009 TRADE Act 

A Balanced Way to Expand Trade 

  * The TRADE Act maps out a fair path forward, explaining what we care about in a good agreement. 
  * It lays out the blueprint for how we can fix the existing model, showing what a responsible pacts would look like, and the procedures needed to get us there.
  * The bill shifts the debate towards discussing a new and improved globalization model.
  * It moves beyond repeatedly fighting against expansions of failed policies, and sets a marker for where new discussion should start later this year.

Answering Failed Policies of the Past 

  * Pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the Colombia Free Trade Agreement have not met up to their basic promises. 
  * These agreements should be serving a majority of people on issues such as wages, public health, the environment, human rights, food and consumer safety and access to essential services. 
  * Instead, these "free trade" policies have come at great costs. The price we've paid in offshoring of jobs, downward pressure on wages, and damage to our environment and loss of family farms is far too great. 

The Purpose of the Trade Act 

  * This initiative sets forth what we are for - shutting down the bogus claim that we oppose trade or have no alternative vision because we oppose these old failed agreements of the past
  * This bill sets forth concrete ways to push our shared conviction that trade and investment are not ends unto themselves, but must also serve as a means for achieving greater societal goals.
  * This bill also serves as a litmus test. By seeing who cosponsors -- and who does not -- we know who our trade champions (and chumps) are in the future.

We cannot lose the hope brought about in 2008 elections, and need to continue the fight for future trade agreements now more than ever. Trade can serve a majority of people on public health, the environment, human rights, food safety and access to essential services, and the 2009 TRADE act can help us realize these goals. 

Please contact your member today!