New Data Show U.S. Trade Deficit Doubled, More Jobs Lost Under Obama Trade Deal That Was Template

[insta8er]

for the TPP

Today’s alarming fourth-year trade data on President Obama’s U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) arrived just as the Obama administration has started its hard sell to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). And that is a real problem for the White House.

The Korea deal served as the U.S. template for the TPP, with significant TPP text literally cut and pasted from the Korea agreement. And the Obama administration sold the Korea deal with the same “more exports, more jobs” promises now being employed to sell TPP.

And since then, our trade deficit with Korea more than doubled as imports surged and exports declined. The increase in the U.S. trade deficit with Korea equates to the loss of more than 106,000 American jobs in the first four years of the Korea FTA, counting both exports and imports, according to the trade-jobs ratio that the Obama administration used to promise at least 70,000 job gains from the deal.

Today’s Census Bureau trade numbers provide the grim data fueling the nationwide bipartisan trade revolt now underway as public opposition to more-of-the-same trade policies surges and presidential and congressional candidates spotlight the problems with the TPP and the failure of U.S. trade policies.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-wallach/new-data-show-us-trade-de_b_9841764.html

[Dont call me Shirley]

1. Really looks like these "trade agreements" are an act of war to destroy america.

[insta8er]

2. I just don't get it, why would anyone want to do this to our country?

[Skwmom]

13. The lie is exposed when they fight against a 61 cent an hour wage in Haiti

In June 2009, the Haitian Parliament unanimously passed a law requiring that the minimum wage be raised to $0.61 an hour, or $5 a day. (The average cost of living is estimated to be the equivalent of about $23 a day.) This pay raise was staunchly opposed by foreign manufacturers who had set up shop in the country, and the United States Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development backed those manufacturers. After Haiti's government mandated the raise, the United States aggressively (and successfully) pushed Haiti's president to lower the minimum wage for garment workers to what factory owners were willing to pay: the equivalent of about $0.31 an hour (or $2.50 per eight-hour day).

http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-suppressed-haitis-minimum-wage/

[TheFrenchRazor]

21. unbelievable. wait, no, totally believable. nt

[arcane1]

7. Multinational corporations have no country n/t

[mb999]

16. It benefits the oligarchy that owns the country

They could care less about the rest of us.

[Cassiopeia]

3. Don't worry.

TPP will fly through at the end of November. We just need to get this pesky election out of the way so the Republicans can get it done and then blame Obama in 2018.

[insta8er]

4. I am not sure that if Hillary is elected she wouldn't do the same thing.

[rhett o rick]

8. I agree but think he covered that with his statement, "Republicons."

[insta8er]

9. LOL

[Skwmom]

14. If Obama beats her to the TPP she will still have TISA. n/t

[Octafish]

5. Seems like just the other day, he was calling TPP critics ''conspiracy theorists.''

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024904802

Makes a great smear among the under- and mis-informed.

[rhett o rick]

10. It's always a CT until they get caught. The people that hate CT

do so because they live in a comfortable bubble of denial. CT threatens their comfort.

[rhett o rick]

11. Now who could have seen this coming? These agreements

are so vile I have a hard time believing that Obama really supports them voluntarily. Now Clinton I can see because there is big money to be had.

[zalinda]

12. You don't think he's gunning for big money? Those speeches, ah.......... eom

[Egnever]

15. This is sensationalist nonsense as far as I can tell.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/balance-of-trade

The US trade deficit over all has remained fairly constant under Obama after an initial reduction in his first years.

So while we may be importing more from South Korea we are importing less from other places. Basically it looks like we need x amount of stuff each year and we dont much care where we get it. South Korea has gotten a bigger slice of the pie after making a treaty with us. How absolutely horrible!

[JDPriestly]

17. The problem is that every dollar of our trade deficit translates into a dollar that is not

paid to an American worker or company. Add them up and a percentage of that may add up to tax revenue that doesn't exist and can't be collected.

The problem with our trade deficit is that it is chronic and continuous.

Frankly, I think that the effects of trade agreements and maybe too few tariffs overall is the depression of the economies in developed countries compared to what those economies could be considering the technological advances that have been made in recent decades.

I understand the theoretical arguments of economists for free trade, but I think the economists who argue if favor of it should look at the facts, at the reality, and admit that it has not worked as they promised, expected or theorized.

We need to take a new look at the theory and reality of free trade and move away from it or at least from the way we have done it in the past and plan to do it with the TPP and TPIP in the future.

Trump is the product of our free trade agreements. I hope that Obama realizes that.

[Egnever]

18. I agree

our trade deficits are unsustainable.

However I think this article misses that mark completely and worse completely ignores the reality of our trade deficits while singling out data from one country to make a point that on it's face doesn't hold up when you look at the larger picture.

Bottom line if we want to improve our trade deficit we need to weaken the dollar in my opinion, the money will flow to the cheaper goods no matter what we do and as long as the Dollar remains strong out exports are always going to lose in that equation.

[JDPriestly]

19. Yes. But apparently it isn't so easy to weaken the dollar.

And politically it would be very difficult unless done very carefully.

[Egnever]

20. Agreed

Probably impossible until we reach a point where the world starts to lose faith in it and by then it will be too late.

If we weaken the dollar to the point we actually become competitive with the rest of the world consumers would lose their minds. We would lose access to all sorts of cheap stuff they are used to buying and would completely ignore the fact that many of the products they could purchase were suddenly made in america.

I don't think there is an easy solution. But if a trade deal with Korea means we are getting more of our goods from them that also come with benefits not discussed in this article, like increased imports of american autos and agriculture products, instead of purchasing them from somewhere else where trade bariers for our products were not lowered or environmental provisions were not put in place I am all for it.

Yes we import more from Korea than we used to but some country lost that business. I can think of plenty of countries I am on board for doing less business with.