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Meet Obama's latest Trade Stooge, Mike Froman
Replacing Obama's previous Trade Representative, corporate stooge Ron Kirk (who successfully pushed the KORUS USA/S. Korean trade pact, a complete and utter failure for the US economy and workers), Froman spoke in front of the Center For American Progress, pimping for fast track trade authorization so that Obama can quickly ratify the guaranteed American job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership.
It was as though Obama's trade representative were speaking on behalf of the US Chamber of Commerce.
White House rep responds to liberal backlash against free trade deals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/18/white-house-rep-responds-to-liberal-backlash-against-free-trade-deals/
At the Center for American Progress, Froman argued that critics of the administration's current trade push are replaying the debates of the early 90s -- rather than acknowledging that trade policy needs to catchup with the advance of the internet, other technolgy, the rise of China, and a general reshaping of global commerce over the past quarter century. There is, he insisted, a way to build trade agreements that can advance labor and environmental standards, build middle class incomes in the U.S., and be profitable for American companies -- not, as critics argue, simply streamline their ability to offshore...U.S. imports may, for example, displace some U.S. workers if factories migrate abroad, but they also provide jobs in poorer developing countries
1) "Froman argued that critics of the administration's current trade push are replaying the debates of the early 90s" -- Means that the TPP's opponents have learned from history and know that these corporate-written trade deals have destroyed the US
2) "rather than acknowledging that trade policy needs to catchup with the advance of the internet, other technolgy" -- whatever the hell that means, similar to the type of embarrassing attempts at political and social commentary you see written in college op-eds
3) "the rise of China" - Yes, the rise of China -- made completely possible by the Clinton/GOP granting of MFN status to China. And deepened by Obama's cowardly refusal to label China a currency manipulator.
4) "There is, he insisted, a way to build trade agreements that can advance labor and environmental standards" -- If you've followed how these trade deals have been sold to the American public over the past decades, you're certain to have encountered many, many times over how politicians and trade representatives and corporate people and like-minded shills in the mainstream media pontificate that the deals should and will include such-and-such "protections" and "promises" and "stipulations" which will supposedly lift other nation's labor policies and environmental standards to match that of the United States.
By practice, this bull$hit is always spouted to placate critics -- and it is always ignored in practice the nanosecond the agreements are signed. As far as US trade policy is concerned, the mutual "advancement" of labor and environmental standards with bowl-of-rice-a-day cheap labor nations never happens -- ever. Whenever you hear or read anybody speak about "making sure trade deals include labor and environmental standards and protections", know that that person is simply bull$hitting you, giving you a progressive-sounding sales pitch. As another DUer has noted, it is nothing more than unenforceable window-dressing to sell your livelihood down the river.
5) "build middle class incomes in the U.S." -- Froman and his ilk have long noses
6)"and be profitable for American companies" -- if by "American companies", Froman means "multinational corporations", then yes, the TPP will be profitable. If anything, these trade deals simply increase market monopolies for a few corporations at the expense of all other business
7) "U.S. imports may, for example, displace some U.S. workers if factories migrate abroad" -- Biggest lie ever told about these trade deals' effect on the national economy which never fails to get repeated over and over and over again: that the only ones who suffer and lose their jobs are a few individual factory workers. In truth, the economies of entire cities and even states get decimated when large-scale industry gets shipped overseas. Local and state economies depend on the existence of large-scale industry, even if most people don't work directly for a factory. When the primary industry goes, what happens to the supportive and ancillary businesses and industries? They die, with nothing to replace them.
Why are you poorer than ever before? Why are your incomes declining? Why are Americans fighting each other for what little money's left? Because so much large-scale industry has left the United States, that's why. The raping of America's economy by Wall Street, health insurance companies, and the politicians who cater to them has been made possible because of that.
8) "US imports...also provide jobs in poorer developing countries" -- Nice to know that the US Trade Representative knows where his priorities are.
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