Tariffs were very strong American worker wage protection, HENCE corporations hate tariffs.

[Armstead]

28. Motives and sources of power are what is really important

The concept, for example, of a domestic law is totally neutral. It all depends on the content of the law, who is pushing it and why, and who it benefits or hurts...So a law can be good, bad, or somewhere in between.

Same with governments in a larger sense. There are governments that are good, bad or -- as is most often the case -- a mixed bag.

It's the same on the global level. A multilateral agreement or organization can be good (such as, in its bumbling way, the UN). Or it can be bad. It all depends on the content, who's behind it and how it is negotiated.

Many of these so-called "free trade" agreements are bad. They are pushed by global economic interests to remove the restraints of national civil society and governments. Their purpose is to push rigid free-market uber capitalism on nations. It says, if you want to trade internationally, you have to accept OUR rules.

If these agreements were so wonderful, why are they negotiated in secret and why do their proponents want to cram them through Congress (fast track) with no chance for thorough debate, public scrutiny or alteration?