Will We Fast-Track Past The Lessons Of The NAFTA Trade Debacle?

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-johnson/53259/will-we-fast-track-past-the-lessons-of-the-nafta-trade-debacle

Will We Fast-Track Past The Lessons Of The NAFTA Trade Debacle?
by Dave Johnson | December 19, 2013 - 9:46am

There are numerous reports that the Obama administration is getting ready to push “Fast Track” legislation in Congress. It looks like there will be a major effort to get this through. We all need to understand what this means to our wages, jobs and economy.

“Fast Track” is the common name for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA). If passed, this means trade bills that come before Congress will have limited debate, will have to be voted on in a short period, and can’t be amended or filibustered.

This rigged process gives the big corporations an opportunity to set up a crisis atmosphere around trade agreement votes; by saturating the country with ads, the airwaves with TV and radio talkers, the newspapers with op-eds, and generally creating a fog of PR and spin promising jobs and prosperity-for-all if it passed, and the death of the economy and all children under the age of 5 if it does not. Meanwhile behind the scenes they will be handing out the cash and job offers to get the required votes.

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The next big trade agreement that they want Fast Track for is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). TPP will likely be sold as “increasing exports” while keeping quiet about the fact that previous trade deals have (obviously) cost jobs and (massively, massively) increased the trade deficit. (Can you buy anything made in America anymore?) These agreements pushed American wages down, and the money that had been going to wages is divided up between the top 1%, Wall Street and billionaires in the low-wage countries to which production is moved.