Trade is a campaign issue, especially among the Democratic presidential primary contenders. This letter appeared in the Des Moines Register today:

December 17, 2007

We need fair trade, not free trade

The free trade that Dean Kleckner praises is truly, in John Edwards' words, a "total disaster" ("Candidates Should Cease Rhetorical Trade War," Dec. 9 Iowa View).

Trade anarchy would be a better term for the North American Free Trade Agreement and its extensions.

We all want and need international trade, but it must be fair trade. The European Union understands this, insisting on general economic parity among its members. With this parity, people move freely among EU-member countries without passports. The countries move forward together.

NAFTA, on the other hand, was supposed to decrease illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States, but instead this immigration has increased. Absent effective labor and environmental safeguards, corporations have played one country against the other to line their own pockets and heap misery on the majority.

Taking a lesson from the Europeans, let us step back and consider our quality of life and that of our trading partners. Together with our brothers and sisters in both North America and South America, we can make real progress toward greater democracy and prosperity. But only if we take control of our shared interests and do not turn our freedoms over to giant corporations.

- Deborah Fink,

Ames.

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