Phony Trade Deal--Exposed

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=14415

by Jonathan Tasini
Thursday 23 of July, 2009
Posted to Front Page Posts

On some things, I would rather be proven wrong. I would rather be told, "you see, these trade deals did their job when they passed and promised to protect labor rights in other countries where union organizers and leaders have been regularly killed and threatened...life has so improved for labor". Then, I would admit that I, and many others, were wrong when many of us thought that the Central American Free Trade Agreement would be a disaster. We would apologize to the spineless 15 Democrats who defected on CAFTA and voted for the deal. I would also say, oopppsss, I was wrong when I questioned then-candidate Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton about their understanding of so-called "free trade".

Alas, the problem is that facts and reality get in the way:

Rep. Linda Sanchez and 39 other members of Congress sent a letter to Guatemala President Alvaro Colóm Caballeros on Monday urging him to stop worker and union exploitation.

The members of Congress gave their support to Caballeros in addressing issues of labor justice in Guatemala. Sanchez said in a media release that Guatemala had not kept its promise to enforce labor laws under the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

No need to pick on Guatemala--these "promises" never get kept because the very nature of so-called "free trade" is, in fact, to exploit people because all these deals are based on seeking the lowest wage possible, which, inherently, means exploitation. Duh.

[OHdem10]

1. Many of us here at DU warned warned warned. Big part of Present

Crises in US is direct result of Gatt, Nafta.

Shortly following the 2006 election, Sommers, Rubin, Blinder and a
Prof from NWestern warned Senatorial Banking Committee of the coming
crisis (40 million job dislocations). They also admitted the TRADE
Deals had not worked out as they had planned.

Typical of both parties we continue to do TRADE Deals knowing full
well they are not working. Most people when realizing they are
in trouble--stop digging. Not our Representatives.


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