General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Fast-Track Treason and the Coming Corporate Coup: Calling Out TPP Traitors [View all]Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Q: When you were the labor secretary to the first term of the Clinton administration, they pushed through the North American Free Trade Agreement. You were part of that administration. Was that a mistake?
REICH: I dont think it was a mistake, but it wasnt really a tremendous help. If you put labor and environmental standards into our trade agreements, its not a race to the bottom. If you have an environmental standard and a labor standard that, for example, bars all slave labor, guarantees the right to organize, maintains kind of minimum labor standards throughout the world, you are setting a floor for all nations. Its not protectionism. This is a way of actually getting everybody up rather than having the bar continue to trend downward. We tried to do this in NAFTA, and, unfortunately, we couldnt get the Mexican government support. We tried to have a labor and environmental side agreement. I think it would have been a much better agreement had we had that.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Archive/2008_Late_Edition_Robert_Reich.htm
The bold is what Obama is after, and it would amend NAFTA as Obama promised. But, now Reich has had a epiphany. Don't think so.