Black People : Tricks of the Trade Deals (mentioned in the Jobs Bill)

Ankhur

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Published on Wednesday, October 12, 2011 by YES! Magazine
The Tricks of the Trade Deals
This week, Congress will vote on three free trade agreements that are predicted to kill jobs and solidify corporate power. It's our turn to have a say in how we trade.
by Kristen Beifus and Christa Hillstrom
Last week, President Obama submitted to Congress no fewer than three "hangover" free trade agreements (FTA's) originally negotiated by the Bush administration. All three bills have been widely opposed by labor organizations, environmental groups, human rights activists, and others for their strong likelihood of offshoring U.S. jobs, further deregulating the corporate sector, hurting the livelihoods of farming communities, and ignoring labor and environmental standards and human rights. They are expected to be voted on Wednesday.
........
In a post-crash, post-oil-spill era, we're enacting agreements that will put fewer, not more, environmental and financial restraints on transnational rule bending. With agreements like KORUS and the others—with Panama and Colombia—it's transnational companies that stand to gain the most. .........
The Same Mistake Twice
At a time of debilitating national unemployment, our leaders are considering passage of legislation that has been projected by the U.S. International Trade Commission to kill American jobs and increase our trade deficit (which, at $700 billion, is already the world's highest). It means that in a post-crash, post-oil-spill era, we're enacting agreements that will put fewer, not more, environmental and financial restraints on transnational rule bending.
KORUS is the biggest FTA since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and shares the same model. NAFTA famously promised to raise up a middle class in Mexico and create millions of jobs throughout the continent. It also famously failed to deliver on this promise: In the last 15 years there is abundant evidence that this trade deal has failed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics some 900,000 jobs were lost in the U.S. alone, and millions of Mexican farmers' livelihoods were devastated when they failed to compete with the influx of tariff-free, subsidized crops from the U.S.
As with NAFTA, the U.S.-Korea FTA will likely offshore thousands of jobs from an already flailing economy. A large number of the endangered jobs pay around 40.5 percent more than the average wage in the U.S. Of the 159,000 lost jobs projected by the Economic Policy Institute, high tech and green jobs, along with manufacturing, are most at risk.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/12-9?print
 
Lori Wallach, who directs Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, made the political case. “It is bizarre that President Barack Obama has switched from his long-awaited focus on jobs to spending effort passing three George W. Bush–signed, NAFTA-style trade deals that official government studies show will increase our trade deficit even as polls show most Americans oppose NAFTA-style trade pacts and recognize that they kill American jobs,” said Wallach. “The only way these deals will pass is if congressional GOP lawmakers expose themselves to the foreseeable election attack ads and provide President Obama almost all of the votes; most congressional Democrats will oppose these deals, which are loved by the US Chamber of Commerce and despised by the Democratic base groups. Apparently, the Obama team has a way to win re-election that does not involve Ohio or other industrial swing states. We saw with NAFTA in 1993 the dire political consequences of a Democratic president blurring distinctions between the parties on this third-rail issue of trade and jobs. And unlike NAFTA, this time, even official government studies show that these pacts will increase our trade deficit.” http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/10/13-7
 
Lori Wallach, who directs Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, made the political case. “It is bizarre that President Barack Obama has switched from his long-awaited focus on jobs to spending effort passing three George W. Bush–signed, NAFTA-style trade deals that official government studies show will increase our trade deficit even as polls show most Americans oppose NAFTA-style trade pacts and recognize that they kill American jobs,” said Wallach. “The only way these deals will pass is if congressional GOP lawmakers expose themselves to the foreseeable election attack ads and provide President Obama almost all of the votes; most congressional Democrats will oppose these deals, which are loved by the US Chamber of Commerce and despised by the Democratic base groups. Apparently, the Obama team has a way to win re-election that does not involve Ohio or other industrial swing states. We saw with NAFTA in 1993 the dire political consequences of a Democratic president blurring distinctions between the parties on this third-rail issue of trade and jobs. And unlike NAFTA, this time, even official government studies show that these pacts will increase our trade deficit.” http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/10/13-7
 

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