Stop Calling the TPP a Trade Agreement – It Isn’t

[pampango]

13. I agree with most what you posted.

... to compare FDR trade policy with today's corporate written trade policy is simply ridiculous.

I don't think it's ridiculous to compare and of FDR's policies to our modern ones. There is much we can learn about what he did right and where we have gone wrong.

FDR's trade policy focused on cutting tariffs in his first term. In 1944 it evolved into the International Trade Organization which went way beyond tariff reductions.

It would have had enforceable provisions on labor rights, business regulations and investment protection, among other provisions and would have used arbitration to enforce them. The ITO was negotiated by Truman after FDR's death. It was signed by 53 countries in 1948 but rejected by congress.

Europe has largely followed FDR's ideas on high/progressive taxes, empowering unions, regulating business and free trade within a multinational organization that enforces these policies. It would have worked in the ITO, just as it has worked in the EU. FDR's ideas work today as well as they worked in the past.