10. Reject the World Trade Organization's Anti-Worker and Anti-Environmental Rules

WHEREAS the negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are conducted by Trade Ministers and Trade Representatives and other officials charged with promoting trade, to the exclusion of officials charged with the representation of other interests such as public health, labor rights or environmental protection; and

WHEREAS trade and investment disputes are resolved at the WTO by non-elected panels in secret process that have the authority to override local, state and federal law, is outside and above U.S. courts; and

WHEREAS in all cases decided by the WTO in the last four years, the dispute panels have favored corporate interests over public interests and have overruled domestic laws protecting the environment, human health, endangered species and local economies; and

WHEREAS the "National Treatment" concept of the WTO could prohibit the use of domestic procurement preferences and subsidies and other benefits to local businesses for the purpose of encouraging local economic development; and

WHEREAS by attacking domestic laws, the WTO is actually dismantling the democratic process under the guise of a trade pact, and

WHEREAS a broad and growing global movement has formed to challenge the WTO's ability to establish free trade rules that threaten human health, fragile ecosystems, labor and human rights, democratic institutions and local economies; and

WHEREAS the State of Hawai`i is the home to a major seaport and is actively interested in the promotion of international trade as a means to improve the quality of life for all people and not as a means for creating a race to the bottom on public health standards, environmental protection and labor rights; now,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Democratic Party of Maui County to oppose the further expansion of the powers of the WTO to overrule the sovereign policies of nations, states and local governments; and to oppose those existing provisions which inhibit Federal, State and Local Governments in protecting their workers, environment and citizen health.