Trade

What We Fight For

  1. Fair trade alternatives that incorporate a family farm agenda on farm income issues and biotechnology crop approval/marketing/labeling issues.
  2. A farmer-based strategy against the expansion of NAFTA through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and bi-lateral trade agreements based on the NAFTA model.
  3. Preventing the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership as a trade agreement that would undercut domestic family farm production and interfere with food sovereignty globally.

Our Stance on Trade

NFFC believes that our international trade policy must recognize each nation’s right and responsibility to make their own decisions about how to develop and protect the capacity to grow food, sustain the livelihood of food producers, and feed the people in its own borders.  Current trade agreements deprive nations of the right to protect their food production systems. Transnational agribusinesses make a fortune by buying crops at a price that is below the cost-of-production and dumping them on other countries.  This strategy results in farmers being driven from their land. Domestic food production in these countries has collapsed, and we now face a world food crisis, despite the record profits that agribusinesses are reporting. Grain reserves, which served to stabilize prices and food supplies for millennia, were abolished in the name of “free trade”, exacerbating the crisis. Nevertheless, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization continues to push for more trade liberalization.

Trade and Food Sovereignty Task Force

NFFC’s Trade and Food Sovereignty Task Force comprises NFFC member groups that work on the grassroots level whose leaders educate farmers and community members on trade issues. The Task Force also facilitates information, provides updates on trade negotiations, and coordinates meetings with local officials and congressional members. This ensures the strong presence and family farmers’ voice in local and national media, especially during trade agreement negotiations like the World Trade Organization’s Cancun Ministerial and the FTAA negotiations in Miami, Florida.

Trade and Food Sovereignty Task Force Priorities

  1. Develop networks with other venues including the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development to ensure the family farmer link to other organizing efforts.
  2. Continue work with Via Campesina to develop a stronger North American presence.
  3. Continue work with partner organizations on trade: Institute on Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Grassroots International, Public Citizen and others to develop an alternative vision for a fair agricultural trade policy.
  4. Develop a further analysis of US agriculture and biotechnology positions at the World Trade Organization.

Fast Track: Trade Promotion Authority (TPA)

"NAFTA on Steroids": Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

The latest iteration of free trade agreements is in the form of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which Global Trade Watch calls “NAFTA on Steroids.” The nations involved are the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Chile, and Peru. Japan, Mexico and Canada have indicated a desire to join.

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL)

Additional Trade Resources

NAFTA