We cannot build our future without helping others to build theirs. First, we must forge a new consensus on trade. Those of us who believe passionately in the power of open trade must ensure that it lifts both our living standards and our values, never tolerating abusive child labor or a race to the bottom on the environment and worker protection. Still, open markets and rules-based trade are the best engines we know for raising living standards, reducing global poverty and environmental destruction, and assuring the free flow of ideas. And we must make developing economies our partners in prosperity which is why I ask Congress to finalize our groundbreaking African and Caribbean Basin trade initiatives.
Globalization is about more than economics.
Our purpose must be to bring the world together around democracy, freedom, and peace, and to oppose those who would tear it apart. Human beings are either labor or consumers, and the environment is a set of resources to be efficiently extracted. Diversity democracy and cultural differences is inefficiency. An unprecedented corporate power grab is underway in global negotiations over international trade. Operating under the deceptive banner of 'free' trade, multinational corporations are working hard to expand their control over the international economy and to undo vital health, safety, and environmental protections won by citizen movements across the globe in recent decades.