The great trade debate – it’s “us” vs. “them”: so who really benefits?

[n2doc]

Stephanie Burgos is Oxfam America’s Economic Justice Policy Manager.

The only thing that everyone seems to have in common on all sides of the current trade debate is that this is a battle of “us” against “them”. So who really are the “us” and “them” that each side is referring to?

Going by the news coverage, proponents such as the Obama Administration are making this out to be the United States vs. other countries (particularly China). As Secretary Kerry just reminded us, 95 percent of the world’s consumers live beyond the US borders (probably the most repeated statistic by such proponents over the last few decades). “When we increase what America sells overseas, our payrolls get larger, our paychecks get fatter,” he said.

I doubt the US Trade Representative has been using that line with any success at the negotiating table with the other 11 countries engaged in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. Anyway, that line of thinking is so very 20th century.

In today’s world, the winners and losers from these trade agreements – the real “us” and “them” – are divided not along national lines, but rather along economic lines. That is in large part because the trade agreements of today have little to do with tariffs or cross-border trade. The reason they are so controversial is that they set in stone the economic rules of the game, creating an “enabling environment” for corporations to do their business globally, unencumbered by pesky national regulations designed with the public interest rather than shareholder interest in mind.

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http://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/2015/05/the-great-trade-debate-its-us-vs-them-so-who-really-benefits/

[JEB]

1. TPP will cement the growing economic disparity.