Harry Reid: Hillary Clinton Would 'Handle Things Probably Even Better' Than Bill Clinton

[pampango]

41. "...if we can't get NAFTA and GATT scrapped..." You are half-way there. GATT died in 1994.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Agreement_on_Tariffs_and_Trade

"...social benefits, workers' rights protections and easier access to education and healthcare in other countries were a "subsidy" to the corporations based in those countries ..."

Where did this come from? We have had 'free trade' with Canada since before NAFTA. So much of Canada's economy is devoted to trade with the US that all of its "social benefits, workers' rights protections and easier access to education and healthcare" should no longer exist, having been eliminated as subsidies to Canadian corporations. I still hear complaints that it is hard for American companies to compete with Canadian ones because of the government "subsidies" ("social benefits and easier access to education and healthcare&quot the latter receive, but which do not count as illegal subsidies under NAFTA rules.

And international trading rules specifically allow European and other countries to exclude the VAT (used to largely fund their "social benefits, workers' rights protections and easier access to education and healthcare&quot from being ruled as a subsidy to their companies. This has stirred up some anger here since those rules make it more difficult for American exports to compete with European-made goods.

"It is not a business subsidy for a people to have a more humane social regimen or for workers to have more ability to defend themselves from exploitation by corporate power."

I agree wholeheartedly.