In Case You Missed This... 'NAFTA, TPP & The Clinton Global Initiative's "Free Trade" Activism'

[WillyT]

NAFTA, TPP & The Clinton Global Initiative's "Free Trade" Activism
By Gaius Publius - Crooks & Liars
1/21/15 11:36am



<snip>

Let's start with NAFTA, which everyone now knows was a jobs and trade-deficit disaster, and a billionaire pot of gold. It's likely though that you may not know the details, including the details of how it was sold. So a quick look back.

This is from a recent Huffington Post piece by Michele Swenson. She opens by looking at the 1990s and tying together President Bill Clinton, NAFTA-loving billionaire Pete Peterson (the one who hates Social Security), and the "prediction" — before it was passed — that NAFTA would create a million American jobs.

Pay attention also to the predicted shrinking trade deficit. That piece — the trade-deficit piece — is often lost. From the article (my emphasis throughout):

NAFTA promoters in the '90s promised increased U.S. exports and jobs, with shrinking trade deficits. Senior Fellows of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), projected a NAFTA-induced trade surplus with Mexico, in turn, creating 170,000 new U.S. jobs by 1995. Within two years of NAFTA's passage, PIIE prognosticators readjusted their projection of new NAFTA-created jobs downward to "zero." The same group, created by billionaire corporate cheerleader Pete Peterson, is again forecasting increased exports and jobs if the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is passed.

Referencing 19 serious pre-NAFTA economic studies projecting zero net job loss if NAFTA were to pass, President Bill Clinton estimated the creation of 200,000 U.S. jobs within two years, and 1 million within five years, based on a projected export boom to Mexico. Twenty years after Clinton signed NAFTA into law, Global Trade Watch reports a 450 percent increase in the U.S. trade deficit, resulting in the export of almost one million jobs, and downward pressure on wages.

In fact, the average annual U.S. agricultural trade deficit with Mexico and Canada ballooned to almost three times the pre-NAFTA level, to $975 million within two decades of NAFTA's passage, eliminating an estimated one million net U.S. jobs by 2004, reports the Economic Policy Institute. As U.S. food processors moved to Mexico to take advantage of low wages, U.S. food imports soared. Public Citizen has tallied in a comprehensive report the promises by U.S. corporations to create specific numbers of jobs if NAFTA passed, and the consequent record of many of the same firms who relocated jobs to Mexico and Canada.

So let's fix three pieces in our brains:

▪ Before NAFTA passed, Bill Clinton, Pete Peterson and a raft of "pre-NAFTA economic studies" predicted one million new jobs, increased exports, and a lower trade deficit.

▪ After NAFTA passed, we lost one million jobs, increased imports, and increased the trade deficit by a factor of almost 5.

▪ Pro-NAFTA companies, who promised to create new jobs here, moved existing jobs abroad almost as soon as it was signed.

The third piece counts. Clinton claims to have been mistaken on free-trade policy...

<snip>

Much More: http://crooksandliars.com/2015/01/nafta-tpp-clinton-global-initiatives-free

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. An oversimplified but probably fairly correct correlation seems to be

trade bills benefit capital, and hurt labour. Really, if trade bills didn't benefit capital, you wouldn't see them being written and pushed by industry. Companies are amoral - they're interested in making money, not in 'creating jobs'. Any job creation is a purely incidental byproduct that capital would rather do without, since labour is a 'cost' in doing business.

[WillyT]

2. Yep... Remember... NAFTA Had Import/Export/Labor Fairness/And Environmental Codes Included...

Nobody seemed to care.

Sue another country for any of those... who gives a good god damn?

Violate Chapter 11 of NAFTA... NOW you have a problem!

Link: http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/tradingdemocracy.html

Same with TPP.

[GoneFishin]

3. They mocked the crap out of Ross Perot for saying there would be a giant sucking sound of

jobs going to Mexico. Not surprisingly the "experts" didn't know the truth, or more likely they lied about it as usual.

[Populist_Prole]

31. And then they tried to whitewash it

The sucking sound, as it were.

They tried to deny it would happen at first: And when it did, they said "so what?" As do the pro-TPP ASS HOLES do here when put in the same position; their conflicts of interests being exposed.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. It's like they really have no idea how these policies are creating economic

hardships among Americans, which is only making the fracture lines more pronounced. This is what is creating tension in our communities and a huge loss of trust in government. We don't feel like they have our backs. Those of us who believe in laws feel like we're just being picked off one by one.

The Clintons must live inside a very enclosed society to call themselves Democrats, and still not see this.

[Enthusiast]

14. The Clintons are in a bubble.

[ND-Dem]

32. the clintons are out for themselves. bubbles have nothing to do with it; they're not

bleeding heart humanitarians -- they're out for the Clinton franchise.

[Enthusiast]

36. I cannot understand it.

When is ever enough for people like that?

[ND-Dem]

43. when they get too old to keep driving hard and sometimes not even then.

[Enthusiast]

44. There does seem to be a preponderance of 80 year old billionaires.

[hifiguy]

77. Damn straight.

And they have been richly rewarded by the people to whom they sold out the Democratic party. They will do the same, if not more so, for Obama if he rams the TPP through and nails down the lid on the American middle class. And if he doesn't mange it, their Made Woman HRC is waiting in the wings to finish the job. Don't some people here ever wonder why the corporatists, banksters and MIC are numbered among her best friends forever? It ain't because she lets them win on poker night, people.

[marym625]

5. When it comes to supporting

A secret, corporate written, fast tracked, agreement, why ANYONE would do ANYTHING but want to put the kibosh on it until it is fully known, is absolutely beyond me.



Better yet, why support it considering what we do know?

[BrotherIvan]

6. Jesus, that picture says it all

As a side note, I laugh derisively when anyone says "tariffs don't work."

[WillyT]

63. Yeah... Huh...

[RiverLover]

7. Thanks for posting WillyT! Grayson: "We are creating tens of millions of jobs in other countries...

from the OP link~

Alan Grayson:..."We are creating millions — no — tens of millions of jobs in other countries with our purchasing power, and we are losing tens of millions of jobs in our country, because foreigners are not buying our goods and services.

What are they doing? They’re buying our assets. So we lose twice. We lose the jobs, and we are driven deeper and deeper into national debt – and, ultimately, national bankruptcy. That is the end game.

This is not free trade; it’s fake trade. We have fake trade.

That’s why before NAFTA was enacted and went into effect, this country never had a trade deficit as much as $140 billion a year, while every single year since then — for 20 years now — we have had a trade deficit of over $140 billion a year.

We have had a[n average annual] trade deficit of half a trillion dollars now, for the past 14 years.

[ND-Dem]

8. Pete Peterson sure seems to have his hands in a lot of dirty anti-labor pies.

Wife: Joan Ganz Cooney (Sesame Street), (3rd wife)
Son: Richard Kimball, Partner, Goldman Sachs

MBA U of Chicago, 1951

1951-53: Market Facts (Market Research firm) VP
1953-58: Director, McCann Erikson (advertising)
1963-71 VP, Chairman, Bell & Howell
1969: Chaired Rockefeller-linked commission on philanthropy & foundations ("Peterson Commission&quot
1972-73: Secretary of Commerce
1973-84: Chairman and CEO, Lehman Brothers.
1985: Co-founded the Blackstone Group with Stephen Schwartzman
1992: Co-founder, Concord Coalition (deficit reduction) with Tsongas & Rudman
2000-04: Chair of the Federal Reserve
?-2007: Chairman, Council on Foreign Relations (succeeded David Rockefeller)
2007-present: Chairman emeritus, CFR
Trustee of the Rockefeller family's Japan Society and of the Museum of Modern Art, previously boardmember of Rockefeller Center Properties, Inc.
Funded distribution of IOUSA (scaremongering film on US debt)

149th on the "Forbes 400 Richest Americans" list; net worth = $2.8 billion.

Called "the most influential billionaires in US politics" by the LA Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/02/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20121003

"His particular targets are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which he calls "entitlement" programs and which he wants to cut back in a manner that would strike deeply at the middle class."

Signed Gates-Buffett "Giving Pledge" (Where the billionaires supposedly pledge to give away all their money to charity, but really create everlasting foundations in order to control the world outside the realm of politics.)

Peterson's "charity" thus far has been his own private foundation devoted to killing Social Security.

Sounds like Peterson is closely tied to the Rockefeller interests.

[RiverLover]

10. One of the TPP puppet masters is revealed!

Thanks for the info ND-Dem.

Greedy SOBs.

[WillyT]

13. Huge K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

:fistbump;

[maindawg]

9. Alfred Hitchcock

We are being led down the road, by our nose, to oblivion.
Hillary will lead us there unless we choose to dive in , nose first.

[Enthusiast]

11. Why does Pete Peterson hate America?

Apparently he believes he can take his wealth with him even unto death. The greedy can never get enough.

[GoneFishin]

42. It's not a matter of pragmatism, it is a mental illness so it is not a rational behavior.

[hifiguy]

78. Greed is the most powerful, pernicious and dangerous addiction

in the world and it is decades past time it was described as such.

[Thespian2]

12. Thanks

Because of NAFTA, Canada is the most sued country in the world. What a wonderful world!

[cheapdate]

15. "Pro-NAFTA companies...moved existing jobs abroad almost as soon as it was signed."

My company did exactly that. We started breaking down machinery and sending it to Mexico as soon as it was signed.

[RiverLover]

16. Really sad stuff. /nt

[nationalize the fed]

17. have to see this to believe it

Keith Olbermann Hosts The 2007 AFL-CIO Democratic Debate

Clinton @ 18:20 "NAFTA has hurt American workers"

Obama @ 21:24 "I would immediately call the President of Canada and Mexico to try to amend NAFTA"

NAFTAgate Exposed -CTV confirms the story

[Hoyt]

18. Seems to me the 1990s were very good for jobs. I don't believe NAFTA was anywhere

near as bad as folks are now saying. At worse, I think Krugman was right when he said, "A lot of people I normally agree with blame NAFTA for things caused by other factors." (exact quote may vary a few words).

[eridani]

19. Yes, they were great for shitty jobs without benefits

Homelessness and food bank assistance requests skyrocketed.

[Hoyt]

20. But not because of NAFTA.. Actually very good jobs were created in the 1990s.

[eridani]

22. So why skyrocketing homelessness and food bank usage n/t

[Hoyt]

24. I don't deny many poor, mentally ill, and those with skills no longer in demand were forgotten..

That needs to rectified, probably by taxing those who do best in our economy more. But there were a lot of good jobs available in the 1990s.

[eridani]

33. Which all went away when the tech bubble crashed

80% of the jobs were shit jobs anyway

[Hoyt]

34. Do you have a citation for the 80%, and what do you consider a s/&t job?

I do agree today's minimum wage is ridiculously low.

[eridani]

35. Anything that pays less than the equivalent of $15/hou or is involuntarily part timer n/t

[Hoyt]

37. I pretty much agree with that, although maybe a bit lower in 1990s.

How's about the 80 %?

[LeftOfWest]

40. OMG...

disgusting response.

not surprising.

[Phlem]

27. Says the guy who didn't lose his/her job to off shoring.

[Hoyt]

30. Certain jobs were going elsewhere long before NAFTA.

[LeftOfWest]

41. bs.

you got yours....

[Phlem]

45. what a load.

[Hoyt]

46. You don't believe jobs were going overseas before NAFTA, people weren't buying foreign cars or

other manufactured goods from overseas? Those are jobs going overseas. It pretty much began with transistor radios, Volks Wagons, etc.

Besides NAFTA was just Mexico and Canada, a smart move to solidify relations with them for the long-haul.

[Phlem]

48. So you for free trade and the TPP?

W/O protection for workers?

Yes Jobs have been shipped over seas I believe that but the expediency after NAFTA left a lot of people w/o jobs and the TPP is going to make things better?

There's the trickle and there's the waterfall big difference. And you know it's not just about shipping jobs overseas, it's about depressing wages here also and Union crushing.

[Hoyt]

49. Ypu obviously haven't read any of the agreements. They include standards for worker rights.

Probably won't satisfy you, but new standatds will help other countries.

Here's an article by Ezra Klein. I think it's pretty good and describes why this is more than a trade agreement for goods, as has been enacted in the past. It's not simply pro-TPP, either. Try to read it on balance.

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/13/8208017/obama-trans-pacific-partnership

Here's anpther article from economists.

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/185531/%E2%80%98transpacific-partnership-an-agreement-that-even-liberals-can-live-with%E2%80%99

There is plenty more if you care to look beyond the scare tactics being employed by so-called activists.

[Phlem]

50. Uh, that's not it Chief.

I've experienced free trade or "Nafta" first hand and to try to convince me more outsourcing is the ticket is just a plain lie.

But you go ahead and try to normalize the situation as wages drop and more jobs are lost.

Jeebus H Christ



Spin it DJ Jazzy Hoyt.

[Hoyt]

52. Obviously you aren't interested in reading others' opinions.

Free trade is hardly just about outsourcing nowadays.

Good luck to you.

[Phlem]

53. Buh By.

Oh and check out post #47. It's more of that great stuff you espouse.

[bvar22]

68. " They include standards for worker rights."

Knee slapping LOL.

You have not toured the Mexican border towns from the Mexican side.
fso, you wouldn't make statements like you did above about safety standards or Environmental protections.

An unenforced law is no law at all.

[Hoyt]

69. Mexico is better off now, although not as they should be. Otherwise, Mx wouldn't have begged for TPP

participation. Maybe they think TPP is going to be better. Same as I believe.

Depending upon who you read, Mexico is clearly better off. Not saying they are great, but better off.

These are a couple of the rosier articles. There are others that say Mexico is decimated. I really don't believe that, but it could be true, especially for some people.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/12/study-nafta-raised-pay-here-and-abroad/

http://www.naftanow.org/myths/default_en.asp

But, read and cherry pick.

[bvar22]

70. There are pro-Free Trade Propagandists in Mexico who made millions,

...just like in the USA and on DU.

Under Nafta, Mexico Suffered, and the United States Felt Its Pain.

The New York Times
Nov 24, 2013 - Nafta is limping toward its 20th anniversary with a beat-up image and a bad track record. Recent polls show that the majority of the U.S. people favors “leaving” or “renegotiating” the model trade agreement.

While much has been said about its impact on U.S. job loss and eroding labor conditions, some of the most severe impacts of Nafta have been felt south of the border.
While much has been said about its impact on U.S. job loss and eroding labor conditions, some of the most severe impacts of Nafta have been felt south of the border.
Corn imports drove down farmers' price, driving millions to migrate north. It lowered labor rights and environmental rules, hurting all workers.

Nafta has cut a path of destruction through Mexico. Since the agreement went into force in 1994, the country’s annual per capita growth flat-lined to an average of just 1.2 percent -- one of the lowest in the hemisphere. Its real wage has declined and unemployment is up.


http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/11/24/what-weve-learned-from-nafta/under-nafta-mexico-suffered-and-the-united-states-felt-its-pain

My source is the NY Times.
Your source is some blog somewhere.


You'll have to do better.
I've SEEN it.
I KNOW what is real.



www.nytimes.com/...nafta/under-nafta-mexico-suff...

[Hoyt]

71. Did you read the counter arguments to the opinion piece listed on left side

of page.

Your source is one of several bloggers debating NAFTA, not the NYT. It's like the bomb Iran opinion piece by John Bolton.

You don't even know what you are reading/citing.

[bvar22]

72. I've BEEN there.

I have witnessed it.

MY posts are REAL WORLD.

[Hoyt]

73. I think your experience is a bit limited. Economies are much larger than you or me.

Your experience is even less convincing than the blogger you called the NYT.

[bvar22]

75. ANf your "experience" (reading the propaganda and sales brochures)...

...is way more than "limited". It is based on....... fantasy.
At least talk to the people who have sen what NADFTA has wrought on our neighbors in Mexico.
GO
and SEE.
Walk in the ditches still died Blue with the color from cheap Blue Jeans (and gawd knows what else) that was just dumped where these people were supposed to "live".


GO...and SEE for yourself,
THEN come back to DU and give us a report.

[Hoyt]

76. We have that here. I don't see Mexico backing away from trade deals..

[bvar22]

81. Do you believe that the campesinos and maquiladoras actually have a VOICE?

That is funny, and so far removed from the Real World as to be embarrassing.

Of Course the RICH Oligarchy in Mexico benefits from Free Trade.
just like in the USA.
If THAT is who you are promoting, then you are correct....for Mexico's 1%.

[LeftOfWest]

39. Thanks. That explains a lot.

n/t

[pa28]

59. Unless you were one of the 330K+ people in Ohio who lost a good manufacturing job.

Ohio Job Loss During the NAFTA-WTO Period

http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=3424

Ohio lost 323,308 manufacturing jobs (or 32.7 percent) during the NAFTA-WTO period (1994-2014), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.* This figure is for total manufacturing employment, so it takes into account both jobs created by exports and jobs displaced by imports, among other causes of net job change. The percentage of all private sector jobs that are manufacturing jobs in Ohio declined from 23.4 percent to 14.9 percent during the NAFTA-WTO period.

Those people now have TWO jobs. One at Walmart and another at Taco Bell for less total income. But hey, two is always better than one right?

[MisterP]

21. "well, we're against NAFTA *now*, so that means TPP'll be great *now*!"

[Phlem]

51. As you can see from the post directly above this that

some of us are still trying to convince the rest of us that "NAFTA" and the "TPP" will be a great thing.

[woo me with science]

23. Huge K&R.

WillyT, thank you for yet more brutal, necessary truth.

[liberal_at_heart]

25. K&R

[JDPriestly]

26. K&R and bookmarking.

[Phlem]

28. K&R! K&R! K&R! K&R!

[hedda_foil]

29. It's not Pete Peterson alone, it's the Clinton Global Initiative that's working in concert.

The OP references a HuffPo article from last year that brings it all full circle:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-swenson/nafta-the-transpacific-clinton_b_5523327.html

NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Clinton Global Initiative


Free Trade" Advocates Convene at Clinton Global Initiative

Echoing promises of lowered trade barriers, improved labor conditions and environmental protections made by NAFTA advocates two decades earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Hanoi, Viet Nam in 2012 promoted the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the most far-reaching trade agreement ever, encompassing 12 Pacific Rim countries. Secretary Clinton stated support for free expression online, and pronounced, "Democracy and prosperity go hand-in-hand," even as the backroom dealings of hundreds of corporate lobbyists have engaged in writing the TPP to challenge everything from Net Neutrality to democratic process and state sovereignty. An amplification of NAFTA provisions, leaked segments of the secretive treaty reveal that wholesale powers granted by the TPP to corporations would permit them to sue governments for alleged lost profits in special international tribunals that bypass the U.S. court system, and to advocate overturn of regulatory laws intended to protect people and the environment.

As the Clinton Global Initiative convenes in Denver June 23-25, it brings together some of the same financial hard-hitters who cheerleaded NAFTA into being, and seek to do the same for the TPP. Among them, Robert Rubin, chief economic advisor to the Clinton White House, is listed as a participant in a panel discussion "Exploring what it will take for the U.S. to retain a position of global economic leadership in an increasingly complex world."

Noble Energy, engaged in worldwide oil and gas exploration and production, is co-funder with Anadarko Petroleum of whitewashed pro-fracking ads under the acronym "CRED" (Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development). At the CGI event, Noble's CEO is scheduled to host a discussion of "the ways in which the North American energy revolution is altering the geopolitical, economic, and energy policy landscapes," seeking reexamination of "the traditional social and regulatory frameworks in which energy is produced, consumed and exported," while touting the "low-carbon profile" of natural gas (no doubt minus consideration of externalities of hydrofracking -- the overall costs to taxpayers and the environment).

Another forum examines the United States' "changing relationship to its natural resources - "chiefly... vast oil and gas deposits that will enable the U.S. to be near energy independence within the next two decades." Still another -- the use of "public-private partnerships to improve education, modernize infrastructure, and advance environmentally-conscious energy production."

A CGI Breakout Session has a panel of CEOs considering "Behavioral Economics," how to use "behavioral modifications [to] yield significant impact" -- "ways that the public and private sectors can utilize behavioral psychology to create a healthier, greener, and more financially-secure America..." Highlighted are "successful nudge strategies that can be applied widely throughout the United States" that gently urge people toward a desired behavior. Promoting healthier foods (which can also be subjectively defined) is one thing. Extending this technique to the backroom dealings around a trade deal like the TPP, it is more ominous to regard corporate manipulation with the intent of overriding laws and regulations passed to protect people and the environment, in service of the corporate bottom line.

And much, much more. It's sickening, but it rings all too true.

[Scuba]

38. Kickety kick kick.

[bvar22]

47. In case you missed it,

there was an Obama "Free Trade" Deal instituted with Korea in 2013.
Again, Americans were promised over 70,000 new jobs and a leveling of the trade disparity.

The REALITY: American lost over 70,000 good jobs (and counting), and the Trade deficit BALLOONED.


Lying Liars and the LIES they tell.'




TW: The Korean Free Trade Deal is the prototype of the TPP.

[Hoyt]

54. It's only been in effect 2 years, some of the provisions won't go into affect for a few more years.

Trade doesn't change overnight.

[bvar22]

55. After 2 years, will the 70,000 jobs come back?

Can you name a "Free Trade" treaty that has helped the American Working Class?

NAFTA has been in effect for over 20 years,
where is my high paying NAFTA job?

[Hoyt]

57. Do you think the absence of trade agreements would help the vast majority of workers

here and abroad?

There are certain types of jobs that began leaving long ago, and won't be back. Some jobs are lost over time, others do better. Doing nothing won't protect certain jobs, but education, jobs training, domestic job programs, unemployment benefits might help.

Just like when it was impossible to protect buggy whip makers, today's technology puts jobs at risk. What we haven't doneiais a good job of is helping people to transition to new jobs. That's what needs to be done if we ever get the GOP out of Congress.

[bvar22]

60. I see you ducked MY question.

Answer mine, and yours will be answered too!

[Hoyt]

62. Almost all have helped in various ways, you just don't get the long-term impact.

Do you think opening trade with China was good, over all.. How about South America? Russia? India?

[WillyT]

64. Dear Hoyt... Do You Not See A System Rigged For The Few ???

Most of us are here have our eyes wide open.

What would you suggest is the solution.

[Hoyt]

65. I would suggest you read and think of the overall impact for the world, not just you.

[WillyT]

66. Four Words...

Let Them Eat Cake

[Hoyt]

67. Workers in other countries?

[hifiguy]

79. It's past time to strop the National Razor.

And put it to work on the tenth-percenters.

[bvar22]

74. That is a tacit admission that "Free TRade" is BAD for the American Worker.

As far as Workers in other parts of the World, I wish them well,
but unless we take care of HOME first, we will have nothing to offer them.

[truedelphi]

56. Obama vs Obama -

Yet again lying through his teeth.i

If there was a god, then just like that other famous puppet, he would have his nose grow for every lie he tells.

[dgibby]

58. This is the type of info that is so depressing.

The incestuous relationships in D.C. are so antithetical to a democracy. It's all about power and greed and manipulation. George Carlin was right-we're not in the club. We work for the club, we finance the club, we die for the club, but we aren't members and we don't get a seat at the table, regardless of which party's in charge.
In other words, we are so screwed.

[Phlem]

61. Can you spot the troll in this thread?

It's a fun game but not to difficult.

[WillyT]

80. I Have No Idea... What You're Talking About...

[dreamnightwind]

82. Just read this, bumping for greater visibility