"Obama to Double Down on Fast Track Push Following SOTU"--Here We Go Again...

[pampango]

45. Do you think that China's growth would have been limited without NAFTA? 90% of China's trade is not

with the US. Trade with China is a bigger part of Germany's economy than it is of the US economy. Germany's unions and middle class are doing just fine. Our problems are internal not the fault of poor people in other countries. We can't blame our regressive taxes, little support for unions and an ineffective safety net on the Chinese or the Mexicans or the Kenyans or the Peruvians. The problem is much closer to home.

Obama promised to work to revise NAFTA to protect Worker's Rights and he hasn't ...

Assuming Obama really means to 'protect worker rights' covering them in TPP which includes Canada and Mexico would be one way to do it.

NAFTA to protect Worker's Rights and he hasn't because the cow was out of the barn and had run over the cliff since that opened the door to shipping our manufacturing overseas to China ...

NAFTA had nothing to do with China. Do you really think that China's growth would have been limited if the US and Canada had avoided a trade agreement with Mexico?

... and anywhere else where workers could be abused with substandard working conditions and wages that kept them in poverty.

"Trade agreements can be written and negotiated to raise living standards for workers and to enforce environmental protections vital to survival of the planet ..."

... the rest we won't know about because it is secret and Fast Track means none of us will know until it's signed.

No. 'Fast track' affects the ratification/rejection process, not the negotiating process.

"Fast Track means none of us will know until it's signed." Do you believe that denying 'fast track' means that we WILL know what's in it before it is signed? The negotiations have been going on in secret for years without 'fast track'. Why would the continuing lack of 'fast track' suddenly open up the negotiating process?

With 'fast track' the negotiations can be secret or they can be public. In the absence of 'fast track' the negotiations can be secret or they can be public.

IF we ever get a trade agreement that would "raise living standards for workers and to enforce environmental protections vital to survival of the planet ...", do you think it is likely that republican majorities in the House and Senate will not cut out precisely those provisions that "raise living standards for workers and to enforce environmental protections vital to survival of the planet ..." and leave in the stuff that corporations and the 1% like, if they are allowed to do so?