United Auto Workers: Reject the TPP

To the Editor: American families devastated by the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs and lower wages would be dumbfounded by Eduardo Porter’s March 30 Economic Scene column, “The Jobs Nafta Saved.” Germany, Japan and other countries continue to have strong domestic auto industries while also paying livable, middle-class wages. American corporations take advantage of the North…

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TAKING THE TPP TEMPERATURE

If you’re feeling like the Trans-Pacific Partnership doesn’t have much chance of passing this year, you’re not alone. During a lunchtime discussion of foreign policy and trade experts, Commerce Undersecretary for International Trade Stefan Selig was practically the only person who was optimistic that the deal could go through this year, our Doug Palmer reports…

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Government Announces Larger February Trade Deficit Despite Trade Deals

April 6, 2016 Contact: Paola Masman, Media Director 202-688-5145 ext 2, [email protected] Washington ~ The federal government announced that the US trade deficit worsened yet again in February 2016. Modern trade deals continue to cause failures in US trade performance and loss of dynamic, diverse manufacturing and agricultural supply chains.  Here are the relevant points from the…

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Why Trump, Sanders, Clinton and Cruz Joined Ford in Fighting Asian Trade Pact

If there’s one thing Americans understand, it’s cars. [Leon Lazaroff| April 5, 2016 |The Street] The U.S. auto industry, all but dead following the U.S. banking crisis of 2008, has largely recovered from the recession. Domestic auto production is breaking records, fueled in recent quarters by the declining price of gasoline. General Motors(GM – Get Report)  and Chrysler, a division of Fiat…

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No, National Borders Are Not ‘Arbitrary’

One of the truly dumbest arguments I hear in favor of free trade is that national borders are “arbitrary.” [Ian Fletcher| April 4, 2016 |Huffington Post] I usually get this from right-wing libertarian types, but occasionally from “one world” leftists, too. But it’s not true. For a start, calling national borders “arbitrary” is simply irrelevant,…

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