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WH waives its own ethics rules in fight for Republican-backed TPP
Trade Fight Draws Power Players
2/22/15
A bipartisan fast-track trade bill that lawmakers plan to unveil in the coming days is poised to be the most liberal-friendly version ever, giving prominent billing to labor and human rights, environmental and consumer standards.
It won’t be enough to satisfy labor leaders, liberal activists or other hard-line trade critics. But that’s not the goal. To succeed, the delicate Hill negotiations must include enough progressive-sounding goodies to win over a sizable bloc of Democrats — but not so many as to drive off Republicans, who make up the core supporters of the Obama administration’s trade agenda.
Enter Team Trade.
...Obama’s job is to sell his vision to Capitol Hill and, perhaps just as importantly, to skeptical Americans who also fear that trade deals will ship their jobs overseas. Obama and his unusual allies in the congressional GOP leadership argue that America must pursue deals such as TPP to influence international labor, environmental and other standards to help spur U.S. exports — not allowing nations like China to dominate global trade.
Obama’s allies in the trade fight include Rep. Pat Tiberi, an Ohio Republican who just took over as chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, and who will rely on his steelworker ties to whip House members to back the president’s trade agenda.
Also on the front lines is a small army of administration lobbyists that includes veteran K Streeter Martin Paone, who received a rare administration waiver from its own ethics rules to bring his downtown savvy inside the Oval Office.
Trade advocates in the business sector have brought in their own team of image-makers and lobbyists, such as veteran GOP strategist Kevin Madden and Democratic trade war survivor John Michael Gonzalez, to drive the campaign.
They’re up against such passionate opponents as Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who is working hand-in-hand with labor leaders and environmental activists to stop fast-track from advancing on Capitol Hill....
http://www.fbactinsider.org/trade-fight-draws-power-players
2/22/15
A bipartisan fast-track trade bill that lawmakers plan to unveil in the coming days is poised to be the most liberal-friendly version ever, giving prominent billing to labor and human rights, environmental and consumer standards.
It won’t be enough to satisfy labor leaders, liberal activists or other hard-line trade critics. But that’s not the goal. To succeed, the delicate Hill negotiations must include enough progressive-sounding goodies to win over a sizable bloc of Democrats — but not so many as to drive off Republicans, who make up the core supporters of the Obama administration’s trade agenda.
Enter Team Trade.
...Obama’s job is to sell his vision to Capitol Hill and, perhaps just as importantly, to skeptical Americans who also fear that trade deals will ship their jobs overseas. Obama and his unusual allies in the congressional GOP leadership argue that America must pursue deals such as TPP to influence international labor, environmental and other standards to help spur U.S. exports — not allowing nations like China to dominate global trade.
Obama’s allies in the trade fight include Rep. Pat Tiberi, an Ohio Republican who just took over as chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, and who will rely on his steelworker ties to whip House members to back the president’s trade agenda.
Also on the front lines is a small army of administration lobbyists that includes veteran K Streeter Martin Paone, who received a rare administration waiver from its own ethics rules to bring his downtown savvy inside the Oval Office.
Trade advocates in the business sector have brought in their own team of image-makers and lobbyists, such as veteran GOP strategist Kevin Madden and Democratic trade war survivor John Michael Gonzalez, to drive the campaign.
They’re up against such passionate opponents as Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who is working hand-in-hand with labor leaders and environmental activists to stop fast-track from advancing on Capitol Hill....
http://www.fbactinsider.org/trade-fight-draws-power-players
The following article helps dispute some of the BS headed our way from these corporate lobbyists, so skilled in manipulating public opinion in favor of big business~
http://ourfuture.org/20150302/the-fast-track-fandango
The debate over fast-track trade authority – designed to grease the tracks for a vote on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) accords still in negotiation – ought to be the occasion for a fundamental review of our global economic strategy.
We know that it is broken. We’ve racked up unprecedented deficits year after year. The unsustainable imbalances contributed directly to the bubble and bust that blew up the global economy. We’ve watched good jobs shipped abroad, devastating America’s manufacturing prowess. We’ve seen workers’ wages decline and inequality grow to new extremes. Doing more of the same and expecting a different result is the very definition of insanity. Clearly, a comprehensive review is long overdue.
...Paone, who spent three decades running floor operations for Democrats in the Senate, now serves clients like Boeing, Google and the Financial Markets Association. With his corporate and Wall Street allies, he’ll make certain that every Democrat gets a “personal” touch from banks and businesses in his or her state, while enforcing “message discipline” on the administration.
One result is that the fast-track lobby is rolling out a few new refrains, such as:
TPP will open access to billions of new middle class customers across the Pacific rim by 2030. But tariffs are already low with the 11 countries in the negotiations. We already trade with them and will whether fast track and TPP pass or not. A generous estimate is that the agreements might add 0.13 percent to our GDP by the year 2025, a rounding error at best. And that essentially ignores the other side of the ledger: the increase in imports from multinationals relocating abroad, costing jobs and driving down wages here at home.
Fast track empowers Congress to set the negotiating objectives. Please, this is simply insulting. The TPP negotiations have been going on for over six years, with fiercely contested compromises worked out between industries and banks. Congress can say what it wants; the soup is already cooking.
Export jobs pay more than jobs in non-export industries. A classic true lie. Exporters do pay more, but industries that compete with foreign imports pay even higher. The history of trade agreements is that we lose a hell of a lot more jobs from vulnerable domestic manufacturers than we gain from exporters. And this has contributed directly to growing inequality and declining wages at home.
We must make sure China is not writing the rules for Asia. This argument, delivered with weighty national security intonations, is perhaps the most fatuous of all. If you care about China, it is too damn late. China has the money. Its mercantilist trade policies have given it a treasure chest of nearly $4 trillion in foreign currency reserves, the bulk of which are dollars. The golden rule applies in abroad as well as at home: he who has the gold writes the rules.
China is now creating a new Silk Road across east and central Asia, a web of ports, pipelines and high-speed rail, tying it to Russia, the Middle East, even Europe. Its growing market – now roughly the size of ours – attracts. Its companies – private and state-owned – are beginning a buying spree to purchase strategic companies and technologies across the world. A dozen TPP agreements won’t keep China from making its way – and writing many of the rules along that way.
And who is we in that sentence? The U.S. has no coherent national manufacturing or trade strategy. We’ve given trade negotiations over to the multinationals and the banks. Drug companies want greater patent protection. Agribusiness wants genetically modified foods protected. Wall Street wants access to financial markets and prohibitions against currency controls that might curb the financial casino. The TPP will feature thousands of pages of deals negotiated out by these interests. We aren’t writing the trade rules. They are.
This time is different; TPP is better, stronger. Really? How can anyone claim that the labor rights provisions are stronger when Vietnam, the designated low-wage market in the deal, doesn’t allow independent trade unions? How can anyone claim the treaty is stronger, when it doesn’t even include provisions against currency manipulation, the central mercantilist tool that China, Korea, Japan, and other countries have used to woo investors and capture markets and jobs?
The debate over fast-track trade authority – designed to grease the tracks for a vote on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) accords still in negotiation – ought to be the occasion for a fundamental review of our global economic strategy.
We know that it is broken. We’ve racked up unprecedented deficits year after year. The unsustainable imbalances contributed directly to the bubble and bust that blew up the global economy. We’ve watched good jobs shipped abroad, devastating America’s manufacturing prowess. We’ve seen workers’ wages decline and inequality grow to new extremes. Doing more of the same and expecting a different result is the very definition of insanity. Clearly, a comprehensive review is long overdue.
...Paone, who spent three decades running floor operations for Democrats in the Senate, now serves clients like Boeing, Google and the Financial Markets Association. With his corporate and Wall Street allies, he’ll make certain that every Democrat gets a “personal” touch from banks and businesses in his or her state, while enforcing “message discipline” on the administration.
One result is that the fast-track lobby is rolling out a few new refrains, such as:
TPP will open access to billions of new middle class customers across the Pacific rim by 2030. But tariffs are already low with the 11 countries in the negotiations. We already trade with them and will whether fast track and TPP pass or not. A generous estimate is that the agreements might add 0.13 percent to our GDP by the year 2025, a rounding error at best. And that essentially ignores the other side of the ledger: the increase in imports from multinationals relocating abroad, costing jobs and driving down wages here at home.
Fast track empowers Congress to set the negotiating objectives. Please, this is simply insulting. The TPP negotiations have been going on for over six years, with fiercely contested compromises worked out between industries and banks. Congress can say what it wants; the soup is already cooking.
Export jobs pay more than jobs in non-export industries. A classic true lie. Exporters do pay more, but industries that compete with foreign imports pay even higher. The history of trade agreements is that we lose a hell of a lot more jobs from vulnerable domestic manufacturers than we gain from exporters. And this has contributed directly to growing inequality and declining wages at home.
We must make sure China is not writing the rules for Asia. This argument, delivered with weighty national security intonations, is perhaps the most fatuous of all. If you care about China, it is too damn late. China has the money. Its mercantilist trade policies have given it a treasure chest of nearly $4 trillion in foreign currency reserves, the bulk of which are dollars. The golden rule applies in abroad as well as at home: he who has the gold writes the rules.
China is now creating a new Silk Road across east and central Asia, a web of ports, pipelines and high-speed rail, tying it to Russia, the Middle East, even Europe. Its growing market – now roughly the size of ours – attracts. Its companies – private and state-owned – are beginning a buying spree to purchase strategic companies and technologies across the world. A dozen TPP agreements won’t keep China from making its way – and writing many of the rules along that way.
And who is we in that sentence? The U.S. has no coherent national manufacturing or trade strategy. We’ve given trade negotiations over to the multinationals and the banks. Drug companies want greater patent protection. Agribusiness wants genetically modified foods protected. Wall Street wants access to financial markets and prohibitions against currency controls that might curb the financial casino. The TPP will feature thousands of pages of deals negotiated out by these interests. We aren’t writing the trade rules. They are.
This time is different; TPP is better, stronger. Really? How can anyone claim that the labor rights provisions are stronger when Vietnam, the designated low-wage market in the deal, doesn’t allow independent trade unions? How can anyone claim the treaty is stronger, when it doesn’t even include provisions against currency manipulation, the central mercantilist tool that China, Korea, Japan, and other countries have used to woo investors and capture markets and jobs?
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