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As free trade pacts expand, U.S. trade deficit soars. Why add one more?
Reuters ^ | 17 Feb 2015 | Leo Hindery Jr.

Posted on 02/23/2015 9:57:23 AM PST by Theoria

President Barack Obama has called on Congress to grant him fast-track trade authority for his Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement. The administration insists the authority, which would give Congress only an up-or-down vote on the agreement, is needed to get the best possible terms from its trade partners along the Pacific Rim.

During his 2008 presidential campaign, Obama promised to renegotiate and improve the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). But it now looks like what he really meant is to expand on that flawed trade model and extend it to other countries.

Twenty-one years after NAFTA and four years after Obama’s 2011 U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, there is abundant data documenting how this trade model has been disastrous for most U.S. businesses, farmers and workers.

Since the pacts were implemented, U.S. trade deficits, which drag down economic growth, have soared more than 430 percent with our free-trade partners. In the same period, they’ve declined 11 percent with countries that are not free-trade partners. Since fast-track trade authority was used to pass NAFTA and the U.S. entrance into the World Trade Organization, the overall annual U.S. trade deficit in goods has more than quadrupled, from $218 billion to $912 billion.

The United States now has an annual $177-billion trade deficit in goods with its 20 free-trade partners. Over the past decade, however, U.S. export growth to countries that are not free-trade partners exceeded the growth of free-trade partners by 24 percent.

Under NAFTA, small U.S. firms’ share of exports to Canada and Mexico has fallen. Had these businesses not lost their share of exports, they might instead be exporting $13.5 billion more each year to Mexico and Canada.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: economy; freetrade; nafta; tpp; trade

1 posted on 02/23/2015 9:57:23 AM PST by Theoria
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To: Theoria

Cloward & Piven.


2 posted on 02/23/2015 10:08:28 AM PST by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
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To: Theoria

It is not Free Trade, it is the dismantling of the American Economy, and they are almost finished, couple more nails in the coffin is all it will take to shut this country down.


3 posted on 02/23/2015 10:12:36 AM PST by eyeamok
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To: Theoria

When you don’t have enough serfs to rule over, on must create them. And what better way to create serfs than to take their livelyhoods, and pack them up and ship them overseas. And if that doesn’t create quite enough serfs, serfs from our impoverished socialist neighbors can be coaxed into moving in and displacing the native serfs.


4 posted on 02/23/2015 10:36:52 AM PST by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
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To: Theoria

We need to be raising import tariffs and restoring American industry.

Nothing enables big government like high unemployment.


5 posted on 02/23/2015 10:40:48 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: eyeamok

my thoughts verbatim.


6 posted on 02/23/2015 11:01:22 AM PST by Patriot777 (Imagine....that we could see Obama being hauled out of the White House kicking and screaming?)
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To: DannyTN
We need to be raising import tariffs and restoring American industry.

Tariffs are like a tourniquet to stop the bleeding of wealth.

7 posted on 02/23/2015 11:04:48 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Theoria
I am a free trader only because TRUE free trade floats all boats. The problem is not really with NAFTA but with the unfair trade relationship the US has with China. That agreement grants China all the benefits with none of the draw backs and puts the US at a massive disadvantage. Duncan Hunter and others have done a good job already delineating why that is. A personal experience I thought I would stop buying cheap Walmart running shoes and crappy Chinese made Nikes and shop for some up market shoes. You can't find shoes that are NOT made in China. Even New Balance only manufactures 20% of their shoes in the US. Something went wrong here.
8 posted on 02/23/2015 11:05:32 AM PST by Sam Gamgee (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't. - Patton)
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To: central_va
"Tariffs are like a tourniquet to stop the bleeding of wealth."

I disagree. I think the lowering of the tariffs is one of the primary causes of the hemorrhaging. The wage differentials between countries are another primary cause. And that's what import tariffs can help offset.

9 posted on 02/23/2015 11:08:24 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: DannyTN

? We agree so I don’t get your point, but we are on the same side. We need to stop the wealth form flowing out of the country and create it here thru manufacturing.


10 posted on 02/23/2015 11:10:58 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

I shouldn’t have said I disagree. A tourniquet is a good thing. I just see the lowered tariffs as part of the cause of the wound, not just a band-aid or tourniquet.


11 posted on 02/23/2015 11:13:51 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: Sam Gamgee
"I am a free trader only because TRUE free trade floats all boats."

Are you sure? You need to look into the special cases of what happens when one country has high unemployment. There is no guarantee that trade will benefit both countries.

Comparative Advantage says that when two people/parties/countries specialize and trade goods that total wealth is increased. But there is no guarantee that both countries will benefit, especially when one of them has high unemployment.

And that is limited to trading trade goods. WHen one country trades goods for the debt or equities of the other country. It's a wealth drain to the country that lets it happen to them.

12 posted on 02/23/2015 11:19:10 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: DannyTN
I sure know mercantilism never worked and was a massive failure. Protectionism tends to only protect industries that have enough lobbyists in Washington to watch over them. Why should their interests be promoted over the common good? Carnegie and Vanderbilt built great empires without government special treatment. Not to mention to mention the principle of freedom, that consumers should be free to choose their goods without government interfering in the process of trade.
13 posted on 02/23/2015 11:31:59 AM PST by Sam Gamgee (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't. - Patton)
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To: Sam Gamgee
"I sure know mercantilism never worked and was a massive failure."

You "sure know" that? How? Because some free trader told you? Have you studied history?

Chapter 6 The deliberately forgotten history of Trade"
Excerpts of the rest of the chapters of the book "Why Free Trade doesn't work"

14 posted on 02/23/2015 11:56:30 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: Sam Gamgee
By the way, you pointed to Carnegie and Vanderbilt. Do you have any idea how high the import tariffs were in this country when they built their empires?

History of tariffs in the U.S.

Our founding fathers viewed import tariffs as a tax on foreigners wanting to do business in our market. Right now, the import tariff on average is only about 1%. Far less than the taxes paid by a domestic producer. So we are actually incenting off-shoring. Imports should at least be burdened with the same tax load as domestic producers, and I think imports should bear the total cost of supporting the unemployed. And that's the minimum tariffs that should be appllied.

Founding Father's original tax plan

15 posted on 02/23/2015 12:14:28 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: Sam Gamgee
Carnegie and Vanderbilt built great empires without government special treatment.

Where did the railroads right of way come from?

16 posted on 02/23/2015 12:18:49 PM PST by Dust in the Wind (U S Troops Rock)
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To: Dust in the Wind
Where did the railroads right of way come from?

Not the Indians.

17 posted on 02/23/2015 12:20:10 PM PST by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves Month")
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To: DannyTN

I guess I now see where the appeal of Pat Buchanan came from. I thought protectionism among conservatives went the way of the dinosaur. The question is how is protecting producers are the expense of consumers fair?


18 posted on 02/24/2015 3:17:01 PM PST by Sam Gamgee (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't. - Patton)
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To: Sam Gamgee
Oh conservatives did indeed buy free trade, hook line and sinker. There were some like Henry Hyde that in the 80's pointed to England's history where free trade devastated their industries. But conservatives didn't listen. Now that the results are in, and unemployment is sky high, our dependency of foreign nations is sky high, and our national debt is sky high, a lot of us are starting to realize the error of our ways.

It's not about producers vs consumers. It's about American jobs. When consumers lose their jobs they cease to be consumers.

Not protecting American industries hurts consumers big time. Look at how many former consumers are now on food stamps. They can't afford to buy the cheap imports.

You pay for cheap imports twice. When you buy the import and when you pay for the Americans that are now idle.

If we were at full Employment, it would make sense to make use of cheap overseas labor. But we are not.

How is it fair to allow foreign producers to pay a fraction in taxes of what domestic producers have to pay? How is it fair to consumers to see their jobs dissappear overseas?

19 posted on 02/26/2015 10:42:32 AM PST by DannyTN
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