“Like Gravity” Fast Track Trade Sinks Jobs and Wages

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/01/12367/%E2%80%9C-gravity%E2%80%9D-fast-track-trade-will-sink-jobs-and-drag-down-wages

Posted by Mary Bottari on January 21, 2014

Rep. Dave Camp (R- MI) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) have introduced “Fast Track” legislation in Congress. It’s been 15 years since a U.S. president sought Fast Track authority, which strips Congress of its Constitutional authority to have a meaningful role in U.S. trade policy. If the Fast Track bill passes, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade deal involving 11 Pacific Rim countries could be completed and signed before it is sent to Congress for a vote. Then the far-reaching trade deal will be railroaded through with no amendments and only 20 hours of debate.



The original Fast Track was cooked up by Nixon, served up again by Clinton to pass the NAFTA and WTO agreements, and stirred up again in 2000 to jam China free trade through Congress. That all worked out well, didn’t it? The United States lost 5.7 million manufacturing jobs in the NAFTA/WTO era, and our trade deficit with China is now one of the largest in history.

Today, President Obama is seeking Fast Track to get the TPP and the 27-nation Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) through Congress. His road is a rocky one. His trade team could not convince a single Democrat to author the bill in the House, and with hundreds of groups across the political spectrum -- from progressive environmental and consumer groups to the conservative Farm Bureau and Tea Party patriots -- lined up against it, it’s possible Fast Track can be defeated.

“When Will We Start to Measure the Results?”

The long, controversial history of fast tracked trade agreements hardly came up in the first Senate hearing on the Baucus-Camp bill on January 16.

FULL story at link.

[yourout]

1. I still say the biggest "stain" on Clinton's presidency had nothing to do with a dress and..

everything to do with NAFTA.

And now Obama seems hell bent on making the same mistake.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Obama doesn't see it as a mistake.

He sees it as winning. For the 1%.

[yourout]

3. Neither did Clinton. Both are tools of the 1%.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. You are correct!

[unhappycamper]

5. TPP was written by corporations

for corporations (in secret) and sold to the American public by our more-than-likely corporate President.