Oxfam America Testimony on US Trade Agenda
Oxfam America submitted written comments to the House Committee on Ways and Means in response to a hearing held by the Committee on the United States Trade Agenda, which took place on February 14, 2007 with U.S.T.R. Susan Schwab as the only witness. The document presents Oxfam's critique of current U.S. trade policy and suggests ways in which this policy should change. Oxfam explains that U.S. trade policy should have development as a core objective and should seek to ensure that trade rules will help reduce poverty and inequality, which it has failed to do in recent years. The document critiques the U.S. approach to the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Round negotiations and bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and makes suggestions to reorient those agreements, as well as to improve U.S. trade preference programs. Finally, Oxfam explains that a new framework of objectives and priorities is needed for Congress to grant presidential trade negotiating authority.