NAFTA – the North American Free Trade Agreement – was sold with promises of jobs and prosperity on all sides of the border. What really happened was that an increased trade deficit sucked demand and jobs out of the U.S. economy; workers lost bargaining power, resulting in pay and benefit cuts; and income inequality rose…
Ohio’s two senators, Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Sherrod Brown, offer a window into the White House’s coming challenges as it tries to open a path forward on trade. [Reposted from the Wall Street Journal | Siobhan Hughes | February 22, 2015] Both men have spent roughly two decades in Washington on different sides of…
I read the op-ed “A Trade Opportunity for Obama and the New Congress” by Rep. Charles Boustany and Robert B. Zoellick (Dec. 29) and wondered what economic data they are viewing. [An editorial by Bill Hickey, a CPA Supporter, reposted from the Wall Street Journal | January 9, 2015] Recently the Economic Policy Institute published…
WASHINGTON IS short on fresh thinking about almost everything, taxes and tax reform very much included. So it was encouraging to see Maryland’s junior U.S. senator, Benjamin L. Cardin (D), promoting a plan to overhaul the tax code that is nothing if not radical. Though imperfect, and unlikely to pass Congress any time soon, Mr.…
There is ample reason for doubt about the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), although its tenets have not been fully determined. There is more than enough reason to oppose its fast-tracking. [Reposted from the Berkshire Eagle | February 17, 2015] Demonstrators in Pittsfield, Springfield and Washington, D.C. will lobby First District Congressman Richard Neal, a Springfield…
Environmental and labor groups are rallying this afternoon to urge members of Congress to oppose a trade agreement President Obama has yet to completely outline. And Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal has become a target for activist groups. [Reposted from the New England News | Jim Levulis | February 18, 2015] During January’s State of the…
BURLINGTON, VT — Oregon’s U.S. Senator Ron Wyden could face challenges in his new 2016 reelection fight if he votes with Senate Republicans in favor of the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the so-called “Fast Track” Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) many in Washington believe is needed for passing it. [Reposted from Democracy for America | …
The Chinese are beginning to tighten the noose around the necks of foreign companies. [Reposted from Manufacturing and Technology News | Michael Wessel and Dan Slane | February 19, 2015] For some, they have already sucked dry their IP and marketing expertise and they are no longer useful to the future plans of the Chinese…
Fast Track Wasn’t Needed During Reagan’s Successful Uruguay Round, And Is Not Needed Now by Charles Blum, former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Multilateral RelationsManufacturing & Technology News, (subscription required) February 19, 2013, Vol. 22, No. 3 When it took the lead in launching the Uruguay Round in 1985 – 1986, the Reagan administration did…
In September 2011, Congress passed and the president signed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) that changed the U.S. patent system to the party “first to file” instead of the “first to invent to bring the U.S. in line with other countries who adopted first to file patent systems years ago, supposedly to simplify the…
