The Maine Fair Trade Campaign is a statewide coalition of forty-eight labor, environmental, religious and community-based organizations working to promote fair trade policies, “Justice in the Wal-Mart Economy,” and more just, sustainable and democratic local and global economies. It is respected nationally for the landmark victories it has won since its founding in 2003. MFTC has built a broad coalition and won important victories on fair trade issues including passage of the Maine Jobs, Trade & Democracy Act, which established a Citizen Trade Policy Commission in Maine; a successful campaign to pressure Maine’s entire Congressional delegation to vote against the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA); and a successful effort to protect Maine from trade-related privatization. We continue to fight unfair free trade agreements and for a replacement of the NAFTA free trade model.

A second area of program work, the “Justice in the Wal-Mart Economy” campaign, focuses on changing Wal-Mart, the big box retail industry and the larger “Wal-Mart economy” through education, coalition building and legislative campaigns in Maine. This past year we passed the Informed Growth Act. This first in the nation legislation requires developers to fund independent economic and community impact studies for proposed big box stores and requires towns to reject projects that will have an undue adverse impact.