Last week, two dozen House Democrats attended a classified briefing with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman to seek reassurance on a core concern about the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership: What is the guarantee that countries like Vietnam will have to fully implement higher standards for the country’s workers as a condition for gaining the benefits…

Elizabeth Warren’s report shows how we can trust virtually nothing that politicians promise with regard to trade agreements. Broken Promises: Decades of Failure to Enforce Labor Standards in Free Trade Agreements Prepared by the Staff of Sen. Elizabeth Warren Executive Summary The Senate will soon vote on the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act…

The President has “worked himself into such a tizzy over the TPP.” While his progressive friends in Congress are questioning the secret trade agreement, Obama is lashing out at them in a pathetic show of presidential petulance. [Reposted from Notion of Change  |  Jim Hightower  |  May 20, 2015] When the going got tough, Barack…

  As Jeff Faux notes, we seem to have reached the part of the debate over the TPP when facts and evidence have largely given way to table-pounding. But given that this is still a live debate and that silly arguments continue to proliferate, here are a couple of clarifications that might be helpful to…

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is taking on Sens. Robert Portman (R-OH) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) with a new warning that the administration would veto a final Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill if it includes the senators’ amendment on currency manipulation. [Reposted from Inside US Trade  |  May 19, 2015] In a letter sent Tuesday…

  Recently, the president claimed that critics who say that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “is bad for working families … don’t know what they are talking about.” Skeptics would respond, “Show me the money. Show me the jobs and wages you’re going to generate for working Americans. Explain how the TPP is going to be…

Senate Democrats successfully blocked debate on Trade Promotion Authority in their chamber until they were promised a vote on Trade Adjustment Assistance. [Reposted from Roll Call  |  Emma Dumain  |  May 18, 2015] A similar gambit faces longer odds in the House, but Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chairmen Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona and Keith Ellison of Minnesota began Monday…

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday vowed to pass fast-track trade legislation before the Memorial Day recess, brushing aside calls for a prolonged floor debate on amendments. [Reposted from The Hill  |  Vicki Needham and Jordain Carney  |  May 18, 2015] “I want to be very clear … the Senate will finish its work…

One of the great blog posts of all time was from Daniel Davies, who declared — apropos of Iraq — that [Reposted from The New York Times  |  Paul Krugman  |  May 19, 2015] Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance. It’s a good dictum;…

You need to tell me what’s wrong with this trade agreement, not one that was passed 25 years ago,” a frustrated President Barack Obama recently complained about criticisms of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). He’s right. The public criticisms of the TPP have been vague. That’s by design—anyone who has read the text of the…