TPA Minutia: Corporations want to preserve a loophole that allows them to use child labor

[cali]

this is just one tiny example of the pernicious crap that can slide through in a trade deal- and not just the tpp. There are something like 17 agreements in the USTR pipeline. The TPA governs many aspects of any future trade deal. It's not just some simple legislation that dictates a straight up or down vote on trade agreements. And the tpa, if passed, lasts for 6 years.

<snip>

More to the point, Republicans say, a tough currency measure attached to trade promotion authority would doom the Pacific trade accord, scaring away important countries like Japan and Malaysia in a misguided jab at China.

“Is the goal to get T.P.A. done, or is it to crush the president’s trade agenda?” asked a Republican aide on the Senate Finance Committee.

The customs bill in question is multifaceted. Besides the currency measure, it includes the creation of an interagency trade enforcement center and a system to respond faster to unfair trade practices like the dumping of exports at prices below the cost of production. Another provision would require the Customs and Border Protection agency to expeditiously investigate allegations of customs duty evasion. Still another would close a 75-year-old loophole that allows the importation of goods provided by child labor if a company cannot find those goods elsewhere.

Candy makers are opposing that last provision on the novel ground that it would kill Ghana’s cocoa trade.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/business/fight-over-china-currency-policies-threatens-vote-on-trade-bill.html?_r=0

[ananda]

1. Shameful!

..

[cali]

5. Yeah. That's the word.

And this kind of exemplifies why I'm so opposed to the tpp- and passing the tpa unless a lot of stuff is firmly nailed down.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. IF?

Still another would close a 75-year-old loophole that allows the importation of goods provided by child labor if a company cannot find those goods elsewhere.

IF? Why the heck isn't it just 'close a loophole that allows the importation of goods provided by child labor'? Why is there even still a clause that allows such for ANY reason?

[nashville_brook]

10. +1000000

[cali]

11. Why? Because corporations have that much power.

and as long as they can keep crap like this in the dark, it slithers along.

[Aerows]

3. Everybody that produces anything

in first world countries (and are resource rich in one way or another) oppose this. Not the heads of CEO's - the nuts and bolts of the productive class.

You don't have to convince me any further, there is already significant opposition from those that don't use child labor and are looking at their livelihood of producing actual goods (as opposed to just capital for shareholders) realizing that they will be given the squeeze that will likely impoverish them if they aren't there already.

It is the people who actually do vs. the people that wish to reap profits off of those who actually do.

The actual contributing class.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. I gotta say I much admire and respect your bulldog traits.

You keep hitting with an amazing level of breadth and detail in your information.

I'm just really glad you're not coming after me with all that wonkery.

[cali]

7. thanks. I've always loved research

really appreciate folks paying any attention to what can be pretty dry and technical. Obviously, it's pretty darn interesting to me, but it's all these little bits and pieces that fly under the radar, but add up to a disturbing whole that I want to root out and expose.

So thanks for reading and commenting.

[BrotherIvan]

15. +1

I have learned more from cali's post on the TPP than almost any other source.

[woo me with science]

6. Cali, thank you for staying on this.

You are a treasure at DU.

The more I hear, the more appalled I am at the moral bankruptcy of anyone supporting this garbage.

[cali]

8. thanks, wmws. Me too. Appalled, I mean.

[IDemo]

9. Surely you want the lesser-yeared to enjoy employment opportunities?

[Segami]

12. Lowlife's

[hifiguy]

13. Shitweasels.

Everything reduced to numbers of a spreadsheet. This kind of shit makes me wish there were a hell for these evil fuckers.

The logic of capitalism in all its glory.

[Scuba]

14. cali, I'll add my voice to woo's, thanking you for your perserverence on this issue.

You are indeed a treasure.

[cali]

16. thanks, Scuba

This crap needs to aired.

[Diclotican]

17. cali

cali

Disgusting - I have allways beliving we had being going forward - not backward the last 100 years, when it come to child-labours and so one - but if TPP, TPA and the rest is accepted - it would be a return to the 1800s for so many millions....

But, thats capitalism for you - slavelabour where it is posible to make it so - and a race to bottom for the rest...

Diclotican

[cali]

18. hi Diclotician. Nice to see you

I'm afraid I think we move more sideways than forward or even back. Slave labor and child labor and forced labor have never gone away, those practices just get hidden and disguised and shuffled around. I don't see the TPP and other so called free trade agreements improving on the status quo and we've seen places like Colombia where a U.S.- Colombian FTA actually made things worse.

[Diclotican]

22. cali

cali

Hello, nice to se you too

I agree - it is rather sad - that after little more than 100 years - we are looking at the same problems our great-grandparents had to face when they was little - more or less slave labor - where even children have to work hard and long hours to just get by.. I think our great-grandparents would have a few words for us - if they had known how bad things really are in parts of the world - and that the powers to be - want it to be that again for most pepole... But then again - thats what you get, when you do not support your local union - or for that matter work together - to fight the ones who want to destroy everything resembling "socialism" in the world....

Free-trade agreements is just another way to say - Screw the working class - the wealthy will get the benefits - the working class get the screw.... Basically it is the result of free-trade agreement....

Diocletian

[Jim Lane]

19. There's so much horrific stuff in TPA/TPP that this one does qualify as minor

If this were a standalone bill it would be front-page news.

Many thanks, cali, for bringing this to our attention!

[cali]

27. thanks, Jim.

I guess I lean toward seeing this not as one discrete little item, but as something that represents many problems that lie beneath the surface.

[WillyT]

20. Huge K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[Thespian2]

21. Thanks,

must still be diligent...TPA will come up for another vote, I think...


Appreciate your work...always good...

[onyourleft]

23. I am adding...

...my voice to thank you for all of the great information on this subject. While I have not responded often to your postings, I always read them and usually learn something new. Nice work, cali.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

24. What's that sound? Why crickets of course...... nt

[cali]

25. it's impossible to defend this

no matter how much someone loves and trusts Obama. Easier to keep pretending

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

26. Oh just you wait. Nothing surprises me anymore. nt

[cali]

28. I know.

Let's review:

President Obama, the exalted and ever honorable is fighting the forces of evil embodied by liberal politicians, environmental organizations, human rights groups, labor unions and public interest groups. Only wise republicans like Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz have the foresight to see this and courageously stand by the best President in modern history.

[woo me with science]

29. kick