Public Citizen Launches Trade Data Center

Are you a reporter writing about a local factory closing? Are you
writing about trade as an election issue, jobs, the economy or the trade
deficit but don't know where to get good information or how to localize
it? Look no further.

Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch today launched its Trade Data
Center, a new and exciting tool for researching and illustrating the
impacts of trade policy on local communities. It's free and contains
previously unavailable information packaged in an easy-to-understand,
customizable and user-friendly format.

"Whether you are a seasoned trade hand or just beginning to look into
globalization, or whether you are for or against fair trade, the Trade
Data Center will have something for you," said Travis McArthur, trade
and finance researcher for Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch and lead
Trade Data Center creator. "We hope that this will serve as a resource
for journalists, policymakers, researchers, students - anyone with an
interest in the impact of trade policy. It really is your one-stop-shop,
and we'll be updating it frequently with new features."

The Trade Data Center is available at https://www.citizen.org/TradeDataCenter.

Through extensive Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the
U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), innovative computer algorithms and
detailed information about contracts and siting of corporate
headquarters, Public Citizen is able to make the following information
available for the first time:

* Trade-related job loss data that is mapped and searchable by
congressional district, county, metro area, state, company name and
more, as certified by the Department of Labor;
* Information about foreign countries whose products caused these job losses;
* Information about workers and companies that claimed trade-related job
losses but that were denied adjustment assistance by the DOL; and
* A map of the operations of multinational corporations in the eight
countries that are currently negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership
trade agreement. Members of Congress and the public have requested that
the Obama administration not include controversial North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA)-style investor rights in this deal. If these
rights are included, however, this map gives a sense of the sheer
quantity and geographic reach of corporations that would be able to use
these rights to attack public interest regulations in the U.S. and
abroad.

The Trade Data Center also consolidates other trade data tools that
Public Citizen has made available in the past. These include:

* Comprehensive maps of corporations that could abuse the harmful
investor rights under the Korea Free Trade Agreement (unless it is
amended from the terms negotiated by the George W. Bush administration);
* Directory and details of NAFTA investor attacks on environmental and
public interest legislation in the U.S., Mexico and Canada;
* Comprehensive congressional voting records on trade deals from 1990 to the present;
* Trade policy positions and videos of more than 400 congressional and
presidential candidates from the 2006 and 2008 elections; and
* A database of current and proposed U.S. service sector commitments
under the World Trade Organization agreements, with an explanation of
their implications for environmental and public health policy.