ITC Report Shows TPP’s Deep Flaws for U.S. Workers, Says Machinists Union President

[Omaha Steve]

Source: IAM News

International President Robert Martinez, Jr., of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), issued the following statement in response to the release of U.S. International Trade Commission’s (ITC) report on the impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on the American economy:

“The ITC, which historically has overestimated the benefits of trade agreements, predicts that the TPP will increase our nation’s trade deficit in manufacturing. This means that the corporate driven, secretly negotiated TPP will lead to the export of good paying manufacturing jobs to countries like Vietnam that lack basic human rights. For ordinary Americans struggling to get by this will result in more unemployment and continued downward pressure on wages and benefits.

“That a trade agreement created to boost corporate profits and CEO bonuses at the expense of working families would be so flawed is no surprise. We now have confirmation from the ITC that weak rules of origin for autos and other manufactured goods will only continue the deterioration of U.S. manufacturing. It is important to note that the ITC made this finding without even taking into consideration that the TPP fails to deal with the rampant currency manipulation by our competitors in Asia. This market distorting trade practice leaves U.S. businesses and workers at a severe disadvantage and expedites the offshoring of American jobs.

FULL story at link.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is among the world’s largest and most diverse industrial trade unions, representing nearly 600,000 members in aerospace, manufacturing, transportation, shipbuilding, woodworking, electronics and the federal sector.





Read more: http://www.goiam.org/index.php/news/iam-news/16091-itc-report-shows-tpps-deep-flaws-for-us-workers-says-machinists-union-president

[Ferd Berfel]

1. Filed under NO SHit Sherlock

Not we wait for th Clinton people to defend TPP, NAFTA and the rest of the RW crap

[JDPriestly]

3. Yes. You are right, F. B.

[ViseGrip]

2. And Hillary helped to write this piece of shit trade bill.

[Ferd Berfel]

4. Yep - and now she's triangulated around to publicly not liking it.

But Wall Street isn't worried. They know she will triangulate right back again and get the damned thing passed

[dmosh42]

5. But, but didn't Obama assure us he wouldn't agree to a deal that hurts us??? OMG!!!

Yeah, we''ll re-name it next year and ram it through Congress, led by our third way Dems!

[Ferd Berfel]

6. followed by putting Social Security back on the chopping block

and then..........we can give Medicare to our Wall Street overlords.

[Hoyt]

7. Obviously have not read the entire 788 page report, but the OP is a bit biased.

To me, the key is does the TPP help overall. In addition, there are non-economic advantages to tying countries together -- but those aren't addressed in the report. Try not to read the report with a Nationalist, America First, Screw-the-rest-of-the-world perspective.

Main Findings
The Commission used a dynamic computable general
equilibrium model to determine the impact of TPP relative
to a baseline projection that does not include TPP. The
model estimated that TPP would have positive effects,
albeit small as a percentage of the overall size of the U.S.
economy. By year 15 (2032), U.S. annual real income
would be $57.3 billion (0.23 percent) higher than the
baseline projections, real GDP would be $42.7 billion
(0.15 percent) higher, and employment would be 0.07
percent higher (128,000 full-time equivalents). U.S.
exports and U.S. imports would be $27.2 billion (1.0
percent) and $48.9 billion (1.1 percent) higher,
respectively, relative to baseline projections. U.S. exports
to new FTA partners would grow by $34.6 billion
(18.7 percent); U.S. imports from those countries would
grow by $23.4 billion (10.4 percent).

Among broad sectors of the U.S. economy, agriculture
and food would see the greatest percentage gain relative
to the baseline projections; output would be $10.0 billion,
or 0.5 percent, higher by year 15. The services sector
would benefit, with a gain of $42.3 billion (0.1 percent) in
output. Output in manufacturing, natural resources, and
energy would be $10.8 billion (0.1 percent) lower with the
TPP Agreement than it would be compared with baseline
estimates without the agreement.

Many stakeholders consider two new electronic
commerce provisions that protect cross-border data flows
and prohibit data localization requirements to be crucial
to the development of cross-border trade in services, and
vital to optimizing the global operations of large and small
U.S. companies in all sectors.

TPP would generally establish trade-related disciplines
that strengthen and harmonize regulations, increase
certainty, and decrease trade costs for firms that trade
and invest in the TPP region. Interested parties
particularly emphasized the importance of TPP chapters
addressing intellectual property rights, customs and trade
facilitation, investment, technical barriers to trade,
sanitary and phytosanitary standards, and state-owned
enterprises.

[jwirr]

8. Here we go again. Al Franken sent me an e-mail to sign a

petition against the TPP. Maybe he can hold Hillary to her word?

[dmosh42]

9. Sounds wonderful! I think it's a re-print from the old Clintonian "NAFTA is wonderful"!

[Enthusiast]

12. Precisely

Apparently Al isn't very well informed about Hillary's past support for the TPP.

[silvershadow]

10. Will we turn our backs on labor for the likely final time? nt

[Enthusiast]

11. Kicked and recommended! "downward pressure on wages and benefits"

This isn't some fanciful imagination at work. This will cause a real snowball effect of lowering the living standards of the American people.

These trade deals are not written for the people! They never have been.

[jwirr]

14. Trade deals used to about trading goods between nations.

Now it is about profits for the owners. That is what we have - corporations vs people.

[Enthusiast]

15. It should be clear to everyone by now. But we are victims of a media blackout.

We used to have an actual media in this country—no more. Members of the media should insulted and castigated at every opportunity. We must shame them into compliance.

[jwirr]

18. 99% 0f our media should take some time and go back to

look at the description of the media of the USSR in the 50s. That is what they resemble today. And they should be ashamed of themselves.

They preach the party line to satisfy their bosses.

[valerief]

13. In other words, TPP is heaven for Republicans and Neoliberals. nt

[Enthusiast]

16. Precisely.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

17. Why is this thing under consideration by any Democrat?

I don't trust Clinton or Obama to do the right thing and stop this piece of *.

[pampango]

19. " ...the Environment chapter is fully subject to TPP’s dispute settlement process ..."

although some observers have expressed concerns about whether the U.S. government would effectively enforce the chapter’s provisions.

Most observers agree that TPP goes further than any other major trade agreement to address environmental concerns. Other provisions new to the TPP Environment chapter, compared with existing U.S. FTAs, cover transitioning to a low-emissions environment, removing barriers to environmental goods and services, and linking the Environment chapter to the SPS chapter in an effort to combat invasive alien species.

The TPP includes several labor provisions not contained in any previous U.S. trade agreement. These include requirements that all parties maintain laws that govern health and safety at the
workplace, regulate work hours, and provide for a minimum wage. TPP also extends the existing prohibition on weakening worker protections so that it would cover export processing zones and other trade zones, as well as a measure discouraging imports produced using forced labor, among others. In addition, TPP includes three separate bilateral side agreements on labor which require Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam to undertake certain labor reforms before the agreement can take effect between the United States and those countries."

https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub4607.pdf

The US already has 'free trade' agreements with 6 of the 11 TPP countries. The new ones would be Japan, New Zealand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. For now WTO rules govern trade with those 5. The question is whether the TPP improves on the 'free trade' agreements that already exist with Canada, Mexico, Australia, Chile, Peru and Singapore and the WTO rules that currently apply to the other 5.

[brentspeak]

22. Kindly pimp your anti-worker propaganda elsewhere. Thanks. n/t

[pampango]

23. Kindly explain why an excerpt dealing with labor and environmental standards is 'anti-worker

propaganda'. Thanks.

You prefer the status quo? I consider that to be 'anti-worker'.

Perfectionism, no less than isolationism or imperialism or power politics, may obstruct the paths to international peace. Let us not forget that the retreat to isolationism a quarter of a century ago was started not by a direct attack against international cooperation but against the alleged imperfections of the peace.

In our disillusionment after the last war we preferred international anarchy to international cooperation with Nations which did not see and think exactly as we did. We gave up the hope of gradually achieving a better peace because we had not the courage to fulfill our responsibilities in an admittedly imperfect world.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16595

[turbinetree]

20. Public Citizen Global Trade Watch---------------------

http://www.citizen.org/trade/

[Dont call me Shirley]

21. KnR, OS!