Obama’s Free Trade Agreement Ignores the Scandal of Rana Plaza

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https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/23-10


In front of the Rana Plaza site, Abdur Rahman holds a photo of his wife, Cahyna Akhter, who was killed there. (Reuters/Andrew Biraj)

On the editorial pages of the Washington Post, the White House chief of staff was trying to pump up some enthusiasm for its still secret trade agreement among a dozen nations, the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership. But at The New York Times, the editorial writers were getting off the team. The Times is a long-loyal advocate of free trade but its Sunday editorial was riddled with doubts—the very same doubts critics like The Nation have been articulating for more than twenty years.

“This Time, Get Global Trade Right,” the Times suggested. Americans, it noted, are “increasingly anxious about the downside.” So is The New York Times. To get the public and Congress on board, it said “the administration must ensure that new agreements are much stronger than NAFTA and other pacts.” Done right, US trade policy “could reduce abuses like sweatshop labor, currency manipulations and the senseless destruction of forests. They could weaken protectionism against American goods and services in countries like Japan.”

Don’t hold your breath. That is not where the president is headed. Washington cynics assume Obama will find reasons to postpone a showdown on trade until after the fall elections (just as he’s done on the Keystone pipeline decision). Then the White House will try to soften up opposition among Democrats, assisted by a lot of heavy-breathing corporate lobbyists. If Republicans capture the Senate this fall, Obama can get help from the GOP.

One thing missing from Obama’s negotiating strategy is the scandal of Bangladesh. The US and European garment industries have concentrated production there to capture dirt-cheap labor and the corrupt, compliant government willing to ignore the flagrant abuses of sweatshop labor. Last year, some 1,100 people were killed there when the Rana Plaza factory in Dhaka collapsed. The Times itself seemed particularly upset. When other mass killings in southeast Asian factories had occurred during the last twenty-five years, the newspaper declined to dig deeper, framing the deaths as an unfortunate but perhaps inevitable part of global development. “Two cheers for sweatshops,” Times pundits used to say.