A bus tour of free trade protesters that’s on it’s way to Miami is stopping in Des Moines this afternoon. Bill Holland of the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign says they’re protesting the expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement. He says it’s a coalition of labor unions, family farm organizations, environmental groups and members of the religious community are opposing the “Free Trade Areas of the Americas” agreement that would expand NAFTA to the entire western hemisphere. Holland says the stop in downtown Des Moines will include a rally. He says there’ll be five or six speakers talking about the impact of NAFTA on workers, family farmers, immigrants, the environment,and how the free trade agreement expands those threats. Holland says they believe expanding NAFTA would do a lot of harm.He says we’ve already seen 750-thousand jobs lost to NAFTA, family farmers getting low import prices and environmental laws challenged. The bus tour will continue on from Des Moines today and eventually end up in Miami, Florida for the trade talks in November.
