Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe miscalculated when they voted for the Peru Free Trade Agreement during the holiday season and thought the public wouldn’t notice.

Current free-trade policies, modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement, are far from free. These top-down trade agreements drive Latin American farmers off their land because they can’t compete with subsidized U.S. and Canadian imported food staples and can’t afford the inflated cost of seed, fertilizers and pesticides.

Transnational mining, hydroelectric, lumbering and industrial agricultural schemes that give foreign companies more rights than local, state and municipal governments, have displaced whole communities and destroyed the land. Agricultural workers have been forced to move into cities to work in foreign-run sweatshops for less than $2 U.S. per day. Multinational corporations are granted power to sue governments to take over public water, electricity and health services in profitable ventures under the name of free competition and make their services unaffordable and inaccessible to the poor.

NAFTA-style free-trade deals are unlawful and immoral in the ways in which they exploit workers, disregard public-health standards and contaminate environments in blatant disregard of U.S. environmental and labor standards.

We all need trade agreements that prioritize people and the delicate environment that sustains us, whether we live in Maine or Latin America.

Exploitive business policies abroad cost Maine jobs and force poor workers to emigrate to find jobs to support their families. We must require trade policies that protect public health and safety, consumers, the environment and workers’ rights. Trade agreements must preserve the right for governments to maintain essential public services. Most of all, trade deals must be conducted with transparency and full representation by those most affected.

Chris Stark

Winterport