Oh Boy... 'Obama/GOP Trade Deal Looks Set' - FDL

WillyT

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Tue Jun-28-11 05:22 PM
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Oh Boy... 'Obama/GOP Trade Deal Looks Set' - FDL

Edited on Tue Jun-28-11 05:41 PM by WillyT

Obama/GOP Trade Deal Looks Set
By: David Dayen - FDL
Tuesday June 28, 2011 1:02 pm

<snip>

The White House has just released a set of facts sheets on a trade package that would include the three free trade deals negotiated by the Bush Administration, with Colombia, South Korea and Panama, along with a renewal of trade adjustment assistance for displaced workers. Press Secretary Jay Carney released this statement:

President Obama has fought for an ambitious trade agenda that doubles exports in five years, levels the playing field for American workers, and reflects American values. As part of that agenda, he has fought for Trade Adjustment Assistance for those American workers who lose their jobs due to increased imports or outsourcing. As a result of extensive negotiations, we now have an agreement on the underlying terms for a meaningful renewal of a strengthened TAA. The President embraces these critical elements of TAA needed to ensure that workers have the best opportunity to get good jobs that keep them in the middle class. Now it is time to move forward with TAA and with the Korea, Colombia, and Panama trade agreements, which will support tens of thousands of jobs.

It�s kind of fitting that a series of corporate-friendly trade deals purporting to create jobs has been combined with TAA, which helps workers who lose their jobs� due to corporate-friendly trade deals. Why else would you need TAA, if not for these new trade deals or the ones like NAFTA and CAFTA which they mirror?

...

In response:

Public Citizen�s Lori Wallach, who follows trade issues closely, excoriated the deal:

For most Americans, what�s newsworthy is not that the administration is pushing Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), which effectively is a job burial insurance program, but that pushing a deal on TAA is being used as political cover to move more NAFTA-style trade agreements that will kill more American jobs in the first place, especially given our high unemployment rates <...>

The point that�s gotten lost in all this wrangling over TAA is that the three leftover Bush trade deals are bad in and of themselves. Even an official government study finds that the Korea deal will increase our trade deficit, and we know up front that it will kill jobs and undermine our national security. The Colombia deal will eliminate any leverage the U.S. has to combat the forced displacements and murders of unionists, Afro-Colombians, human rights defenders and others � problems that have gotten worse since this deal was signed in 2007. The Panama deal will make it harder for the U.S. government to penalize tax-dodging multinational corporations. The supplemental deal on autos for Korea, the labor �Action Plan� for Colombia, and the tax information exchange agreement for Panama are all toothless and do nothing to alleviate the aforementioned problems, as Public Citizen has extensively documented. They were all part of a political-cover kabuki dance.

<snip>

More: http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/06/28/obamagop-trade-deal-looks-set/

:evilfrown:

*******************************************************************************

And then there's THIS:

Obama Capitulates to GOP and Withdraws Labor Protection from Colombia Trade Deal
By: emptywheel
Tuesday June 28, 2011 6:09 am

<snip>

The website for the US Trade Representative still has a link to the inadequate�but nevertheless improved�labor protections that the US had demanded from Colombia to support a trade deal with the country.

But according to Sander Levin�who just announced his opposition to the deal�Obama has agreed to a Republican demand to drop such protections from the deal.

Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, told reporters today he will oppose the free trade deal with Colombia, saying he can�t support the deal unless a plan to protect worker rights is included.

Levin criticized Republican opposition to including a reference to a labor rights action plan in implementing legislation � and the Obama administration�s acquiescence.

�Refusal to refer to the action plan on workers rights in the implementing bill is a fatal flaw,� Levin said.

<snip>

Link: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/06/28/obama-capitulates-to-gop-and-withdraws-labor-protection-from-colombia-trade-deal/

:banghead: