Sen. Sherrod Brown: Trade pacts cost millions of jobs

[RiverLover]

Sen. Sherrod Brown: Trade pacts cost millions of jobs
USA Today
5/3/15



We shouldn't give fast-track authority for more NAFTA-style deals if we can't guarantee a level playing field for U.S. workers and manufacturers. And we shouldn't greenlight the Trans-Pacific Partnership if we can't guarantee that China won't be able to gain backdoor entry at a later date.

Between TPP and the pending commerce agreement with European nations, more than half of the world's GDP is at stake. Now is not the time to rush an agreement and ignore the fine print.

It's true that export opportunities through trade deals have created jobs. But trade pacts have also cost millions of jobs. Lauding gains from exports while ignoring a flood of imports — and skyrocketing trade deficits — amounts to reporting half of the score of a baseball game. The Cleveland Indians scoring six runs doesn't help if the Yankees scored eight.

Past agreements have often replaced well-paid manufacturing jobs with low-paying service sector jobs, depressing wages and widening income equality.

And when we make trade deals with countries that don't follow the same labor, health and environmental laws that we do, we see rising imports and shuttered factories. How can U.S. workers compete against imports made by low-wage workers in a TPP nation?

...We know that trade done right can create prosperity. But I want trade that strengthens America's middle class and creates jobs. That happens only when the rules aren't fixed and we have a level playing field....

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/05/03/nafta-trans-pacific-partnership-sen-sherrod-brown-editorials-debates/26843227/

What's not to love about Senator Brown??? He speaks truth.

[djean111]

1. "And when we make trade deals with countries that don't follow the same labor, health and

environmental laws that we do, we see rising imports and shuttered factories. How can U.S. workers compete against imports made by low-wage workers in a TPP nation?"

We cannot. And - that is the plan. The TPP is not really about countries working with/competing against other countries. It is about corporations reducing all countries to a bunch of ill-paid workers with no benefits.