Trade agreements must contain such provisions in their core text and provide the same enforcement mechanisms as for other commercial provisions, with the same binding dispute resolution procedures and trade sanctions. Foreign operations of U.S. corporations should help to raise, not lower, such standards, and U.S. corporations must be required to disclose basic information on their environmental, labor, and human rights practices abroad. Raising economic and social standards must be a precondition for comprehensive economic integration between countries at different stages of development, as was the case for accession to the European Union by Spain, Portugal, and Greece. Raising standards in developing countries requires additional assistance and respect for diversity. Development assistance that helps empower civil society and democratic governments to create sustainable, vibrant economies and respect basic rights must be increased.
Trade is no substitute for aid.
Debt cancellation must be delinked from regressive conditionality that disadvantages people in poverty, women, and working people, including those in the informal economy. Diversity of development paths, including development that does not emphasize exports based on the unsustainable use of natural resources and the exploitation of workers, must be encouraged. Countries must be allowed to give priority to sustaining family farms and achieving global food security. Existing rules for the global economy encourage excessive economic concentration in agricultural markets that results in the manipulation of global food supplies and the depression of farm prices, threatening food security and the survival of family farmers in the U.S. and around the world. Antitrust laws at the local, regional, national and international levels must be vigorously enforced, and strengthened where necessary, to guarantee competitive markets for family farmers.