Today in Iowa, Senator John Edwards announced his plan for smart and safe trade policies that would put workers and families first, ahead of big multinational corporations.  Senator Edwards called attention during his speech to the fact that bad trade policies have stunted American wages and led to the highest level of income inequality in America since the Great Depression.

            As president, Edwards will insist on pro-worker provisions in new deals, hold trade partners to their commitments, invest more in dislocated workers and communities, and ensure that imports are safe.

            “We need new trade policies in America that put workers, wages and families first,” said Edwards.  “It is not enough for a trade deal to be popular on Wall Street or show up in economic statistics.”

            As president, Edwards will make sure we have smart and safe trade policies that help families and strengthen our economy. Edwards will:

• Be a tough negotiator who will reject bad trade deals. Edwards will make sure trade deals help regular families, include strong labor and environmental standards and fight currency manipulation.
• Demand a level playing field for trade. Edwards will assign top prosecutors at the U.S. Department of Justice to the job of enforcing trade laws, including the stronger labor and environment standards he will negotiate. He will eliminate tax incentives for corporations to move offshore.
• Revamp trade assistance to help dislocated workers and communities. Edwards will create a new "Training Works" initiative, help communities recover from mass layoffs and strengthen the safety net for workers who lose their jobs.
• Ensure the safety of imported food and drugs and enforce mandatory country-of-origin labeling, letting families choose the origin of their food. Edwards will also enforce a "zero tolerance" rule and immediately freeze the specific import of any food, toys, medicines, or other goods that threatens the health of our children and families.
• Require Country-of-Origin labeling so that consumers have the option of choosing safe, American-raised meat and poultry and American-grown produce.

Edwards also believes that in order to ensure that our trade policies and our economy work for regular Americans we need to end the influence of lobbyist money in Washington. He renewed his call for all federal officeholders and candidates from all political parties to join him in refusing to accept any form of campaign donation from federal lobbyists.

-Team Edwards