The Audacity of "Free Trade" Agreements

[Donnachaidh]

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/15-0

Congress could vote any day now to strike a new blow against already-battered U.S. workers and the unemployed.

Committees in the House and Senate recently marked up the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). The Obama administration is urging passage of all three relics of the Bush administration before the summer recess.

The full-court press on the FTAs represents a reversal for a president elected on a trade reform platform. During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama proclaimed his opposition to the NAFTA-style FTAs and boasted of his stance against the devastating North American and Central American agreements. As candidate Obama, he carefully distanced himself from the open-market, pro-corporate policies of his predecessor, calling for significant changes to the NAFTA model, including enforceable labor and environmental standards, and consumer protections.

:snip:

In the three years since Obama wooed voters with talk of bold changes in trade policy, the need for reforms has reached crisis proportions. The global economic crisis left the United States with skyrocketing un- and under-employment rates. The government paid billions of dollars in bailout money to the corporations who caused the crisis. These corporations then turned around to post record profits and hand out astronomical executive pay bonuses. The evidence that FTA-fueled outsourcing benefits those corporations while putting Americans out of work has piled up, and polls show that a majority of U.S. citizens oppose NAFTA-style FTAs.

More at the link --

[FreakinDJ]

1. in a time of +16% unemployment

[OHdem10]

2. Thanks for posting this. A large part of present joblessness

is the result of poorly managed Trade Policy.
Prof. Morrisey who is often on TV, CNN, Fox
and occasionally on Dylan Ratigan Show--
Has said that until we do something about
our humongous Trade Deficit and correct trade
Policies we will continue to limp along with
high unemployment numbers.

Thanks again.

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. Free Trade and outsourcing have cost us almost 10 million jobs since the days of Reagan.

Our current account deficit because of Free Trade is 500 billion dollars a year and totals about 8 trillion dollars since the days Reagan and Bush Sr started this insanity. Sadly, there are complete and total idiots (including some who promote it on DU) that continue to push for more of this insanity. Even worse, Obama has done a 180 from what he promised in 2008. It was incredibly sad when Obama tried to defend these leftover Bush agreements in a recent news conference. He first said they would create jobs, and then he brought up the trade adjustment money he was fighting for to help retrain the hundreds of thousands of workers that would LOSE their jobs because of these agreements. Talk about someone who hasn't a fucking clue what he is talking about! Who in hell is advising our President?

[provis99]

4. "Free Trade" only means free movement of capital.

You'd figure "free trade" would also mean free movement of labour, but that ain't so.

[Elwood P Dowd]

5. All our free trade agreements are investment/outsourcing scams

masquerading as David Ricardo free trade agreements. It's a shame that so many, including a few here on DU, fall for this shit.