Reply #11: I don't think Edwards has made that argument. His argument is this: [View All]

[AP]

trade is a good thing, however, trade is driving the value of work if there are no protections on workers.

What's really happening with NAFTA is that companies are lowering the costs of their inputs (labor and raw material) and not passing those savings on to the consumers. They're still getting a huge profit margin, and they're paying that to corporate insiders, rather than to the workers.

(Incidentally, I don't think that's what's happening in China -- the chinese actually price compete, and they deliver a lot of the profit to the people -- but that's not meant as an excuse for China cheating on their trade deals. The fact is that the America companies which benefit from American trade deals outside of China are just using these trade deals to maximize profits which pass to insiders, andn not to their employees in higher wages or to consumers in the form of price competition.)

I think it's perfectly obvious from what Edwards says and how he has voted that his primary concern is in not devaluing labor.

What I want to hear is some evidence that his vote on the China deal is something so awful that it subsumes everything else. I haven't seen that yet.