Author Archives: Michael Stumo

Hillary Clinton Emails: Secret Negotiations With New York Times, Trade Bill Lobbying Revealed In Latest State Department Release

Emails show Clinton seeming to personally lobby her former Democratic colleagues in the Senate to support free trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. She had previously told voters she would work to block the Colombian and South Korean pacts.  [Jackie Salo & David Sirota| February, 19 2016 |International Business Times] An email Oct. 8, 2011, to…

National Milk Producers To Decide TPP Stance At March 8 Board Meeting

  The board of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), the major U.S. dairy industry association, is slated to decide on the group’s position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at its March 8 meeting, according to NMPF Senior Vice President Jaime Castaneda. [Inside U.S. Trade| February, 16 2016 |Inside U.S. Trade] Castaneda told reporters on…

The TPP would be the final death blow to American manufacturing

  A century ago, Carl Sandburg dubbed Chicago the City of Big Shoulders: “hog butcher for the world, tool maker, stacker of wheat, player with railroads and the nation’s freight handler; stormy, husky brawling.” [Leo Gerrard, Alternet| February, 14 2016| Salon] All of this was true of America itself as well: Nation of big shoulders.…

Korea FTA spurred massive titanium imports

The titanium industry is an example of how trade agreements make the US lose and not win. The Korea-US free trade agreement (KORUS) was approved in 2011 and implemented in 2012. Korea had no titanium industry before the KORUS deal, but created one to export to the US because of the deal. This was a…

Donald Trump On Ford, Carrier, Shipping Jobs To Mexico: ‘I’m The Only One Who Understands What’s Going On’

Donald Trump, the billionaire and national GOP presidential frontrunner who just won the New Hampshire primary and is polling ahead of the field in South Carolina, is seizing a major political opportunity with the news that Ford and Carrier are shipping thousands of U.S. jobs to Mexico. [Matthew Boyle| February, 13 2016 | Breitbart] In a…

CAPITAL PRESS: TPP WOULD BE ‘DEATH KNELL’ FOR INDUSTRY, R-CALF LEADER SAYS

Matthew Weaver/Capital Press R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard outlines some of the problems with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement for U.S. cattle producers Feb. 10 during a meeting in Spokane. [Matthew Weaver/Capital Press R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard| February, 15 2016 | NEWS.MIKECALLICRATE.com] Matthew Weaver/Capital Press R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard outlines some of the problems with the…

What the Candidates Are Saying About Free Trade in the Debates

Below are all the cases during the presidential debates so far in which candidates have mentioned free trade as an issue. (I’ve edited a little for clarity, as raw transcripts of live debates contain a lot of verbal clutter.) [Ian Fletcher| February, 15 2016 |Huffington Post] As you’ll see, this issue has boiled somewhat hotter…

MAPI: China-US goods trade deficit soared in 2015

  U.S. Trade Deficit in Manufactures Soared by $89 Billion in 2015, 600,000 Job Loss; Chinese Surplus Up More Than $50 Billion to $1.1 Trillion by Ernest Preeg, MAPI (link to original) The U.S. trade deficit in manufactures in 2015 soared by $89 billion, or 16%, to $650 billion, which resulted in a trade-related loss…

Donald J. Trump First Candidate to Reply to the ‘Sessions Test’

On February 5th, Breitbart News exclusively reported that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) issued a list of five questions that all candidates must answer if they wish to seek the Republican nomination. In recent years, Sessions has emerged as the intellectual thought leader of the nation-state conservative movement. Sessions has articulated how mass immigration combined with reckless trade deals…

Draft Hill Letter To Japan Claims Expanding Pork Subsidy Would Cost TPP Votes

U.S. pork producers and their congressional allies are ramping up their efforts to oppose a planned expansion of a Japanese pork subsidy program by preparing to send a letter to the Japanese ambassador arguing that the plan will cost votes for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the U.S. Congress if it is not modified. [Daily…