10 Tall Tales on Trade: Fact-Checking Obama’s Top Trade Official
Yesterday was a difficult day for U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman. He had to go before Congress and explain how the administration’s plan to expand a trade model that has offshored U.S. manufacturing jobs and exacerbated middle class wage stagnation fits with President Obama’s stated “middle class economics” agenda. Inconveniently for Mr. Froman, it does not.
Here’s a rundown of the top 10 fibs and half-truths that Froman uttered before the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee yesterday in his sales pitch for the administration’s bid to expand the NAFTA “trade” pact model by Fast-Tracking through Congress the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
1. Fast Track Puts Congress in the Driver’s Seat (of a Runaway Car, without Brakes or a Steering Wheel....)
2. A Trade Surplus with Our FTA Partners (Does Not Appear in Official Government Data...)
3. We Wish to Ensure Access to Affordable Medicines in the TPP (but Big Pharma Won’t Let Us...)
4. Most Exporters are Small Businesses (that Have Endured Slow and Falling Exports under FTAs...)
5. We Try to Be Transparent (with the Corporate Advisors Who Can Access Secret Texts...)
http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/trans-pacific-partnership/
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