We all know how NAFTA turned out for us (for most of us, anyway). We all know how opening up trade with China turned out. It’s right in front of our faces. Who hasn’t seen the boarded-up downtowns of closed-down “factory towns?” Who hasn’t felt the fear of hearing, “We’re moving your job to China”?…
There is bi-partisan opposition in Congress to Fast Track and a large movement of movements mobilized to stop it. [Reposted from Popular Resistance | Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers | January 18th, 2015] The corporate media is reporting that since the Republican leadership and President Obama support Fast Track trade authority, it is a done…
The following article features a comment by Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA [Reposted from Inside US Trade | David Thomas | January 8, 2015] The National Export Initiative’s (NEI) failure to double exports from 2009 levels by the end of this year is due to a number of factors, some outside the Obama administration’s control…
Representative Paul Ryan has set a January 27, 2015 Ways and Means Committee hearing with USTR Michael Froman on trade. Senator Orrin Hatch has set a Senate Finance Committee hearing on trade policy, featuring Michael Froman, on the same day. It is important for us to let the GOP rank and file know that they…
A frustrated White House is planning to blitz congressional Democrats on trade in the weeks following Tuesday’s State of the Union address. [Reposted from The Hill | Vicki Needham | January 20, 2015] President Obama is tasking every member of his Cabinet to round up votes from Democrats for fast-track negotiating power, which would give…
Unabashed liberals Rosa DeLauro and Keith Ellison are finding themselves taking sides with tea party-backed Republicans Walter Jones and Duncan Hunter in the fight against a common enemy — the White House’s GOP-backed trade agenda. [Reposted from Politico | Adam Behsudi | January 20, 2015] The extreme political opposites are pushing back on trade just…
Background: Beginning this week President Obama will marshal his Cabinet members to pressure members of Congress to vote in favor of Fast-Track Authority, also known as Trade Promotion Authority. [Memo from R-CALF USA | January 19, 2015] Fast-Track Authority is Nixon-era legislation that delegates to the President authorities that the U.S. Constitution granted only to…
Under the leadership of National Economic Council Director Jeff Zients, the White House has set up an operation of senior officials seeking to garner votes for a fast-track or Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill, according to informed sources. [Reposted from World Trade Online | January 15, 2015] It involves Cabinet officials assigned to reach out…
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) is trying to get people talking about the trade deficit and the harm it is doing our wages, our jobs and our potential for mutual prosperity. He’s right to do this [Reposted from the Campaign for America’s Future blog | Dave Johnson | January 13, 2015] Last week Grayson spoke at…
PARIS — The Swiss central bank stunned global markets on Thursday by abandoning a crucial part of its three-year effort to hold down the value of its national currency against the ever-weakening euro. [Reposted from The New York Times | David Jolly and Neil Irwin | January 15, 2015] The country had been trying to…