Free Republic

The US President warned the UK would be “at the back of the queue” for a trade deal with America if it quit Brussels. But his threat provoked outrage and scorn from pro-Brexit campaigners, who dismissed it as yet another scaremongering ploy from the pro-EU lobby. Mr Obama, who will no longer be in office when decisions on a trade deal are made, delivered a lecture to the British people on why he thinks it is in the UK’s, America’s and the world’s best interests for Britain to vote to stay in the EU on June 23. He weighed into...

[... On a visit to London on Saturday, Obama sought to address sceptics' fears head-on, admitting that some past trade agreements had "served the interests of large corporations and not necessarily of workers in the countries that participate in them". ...]

Tens of thousands of opponents of a proposed transatlantic trade deal poured onto German streets Saturday on the eve of a visit by US President Barack Obama. A loose coalition of trade unions, environmentalists and consumer protection groups in the northern city of Hanover said they drew a crowd of 90,000 to a march and rally outside the city's opera house. Police mobilised a large force to keep the peace and put attendance at 35,000. Obama's trip -- to open an industrial technology fair and hold talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders -- was intended to lend...

Establishment voices of economists, government and business officials argue that trade deals are critical in a global economy, and great for America. But critics such as organized labor call them “death warrants.” And in blue collar communities in Wisconsin and across the industrial Midwest, that economic angst, coupled with some sense of betrayal, helps explain the roiling politics of 2016. Wisconsin votes Tuesday. But soon after come other industrial states, including Pennsylvania. And all could be battlegrounds this fall in the general election. And a lot will look like Milwaukee, once known as “the machine shop to the world,” now...

In addition to imposing an expanded transnational regulatory and judicial regime that would further erode U.S. national sovereignty and self-government, the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would give Big Business cronies even more power over U.S. and European Union policy. If approved, it would also allow the European Union to meddle in U.S. governance, and vice versa. That is according to an explosive section from the negotiating TTIP agreement that was leaked last week obtained by an establishment-funded anti-cronyism organization. It has since been released by the EU. Outrage quickly ensued.Virtually all of the press so far has...

A new CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report, North America: Time for a New Focus, asserts that elevating and prioritizing the Canada-Mexico-U.S. relationship offers the best opportunity for strengthening the United States and its place in the world. "It is time to put North America at the forefront of U.S. policy," the report says. "The development and implementation of a strategy for U.S. economic, energy, security, environmental, and societal cooperation with its two neighbors can strengthen the United States at home and enhance its influence abroad." by David H. Petraeus, retired U.S. Army general and chairman of the KKR Global Institute,...

Germany's largest trade union is opening a joint office with the United Auto Workers in Tennessee to promote labor issues at German automakers and suppliers in the southern United States. Frankfurt-based IG Metall estimates that 100,000 people work for German-owned automotive companies in the U.S. Most of those workers aren't represented by unions, unlike at their counterparts at plants in Germany. ...

Yesterday’s procedural vote in the Republican-controlled Senate to give Obama Trade Promotion Authority, or “fast track” as it used to be called, passed by just one vote – that of Florida’s Republican Senator and presidential aspirant Marco Rubio. Why would Rubio vote to give Obama more power? No one knows for certain, but Senator Jeff Sessions, in a statement released after the vote gave us some insight into the dynamics of what went on on Capitol Hill prior to the vote. “Americans increasingly believe that their country isn’t serving its own citizens. They need look no further than a bipartisan...

The Senate is set to vote on the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation the House passed last week that gives President Obama fast track trade authority to finalize his trade negotiations without Congressional amendments. Right now, Obama is finalizing negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). Under fast-track trade authority, Congress only gets an up or down vote on the final negotiation, and is not part of the negotiating process. The legislation passed the House because it did not contain TAA – Trade Adjustment Assistance – a...

GOP presidential candidate and billionaire businessman Donald Trump slammed President Obama’s trade agreements – especially the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) – which Obama argued the United States needs in order to better compete with China. However, according to a recent report by Politico, China may be trying to enter the TPP – defeating Obama’s main argument for finalizing the deal. “Of course China wants to join the trade negotiation because the deal is so pathetic and so bad,” Trump told Breitbart News. He added that China would continue to take advantage of America’s stupid politicians, who don’t know what they’re...

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed Trade Promotion Authority (TPA, better known as Fast Track) giving President Obama what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) admitted is “an enormous grant of power, obviously, from a Republican Congress to a Democratic president.”Following a week of high-pressure arm-twisting by President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the House passed the increasingly unpopular TPA bill by a vote of 218-208, with 28 Democrats jumping on the mostly-Republican pseudo “free trade” bandwagon.This was the second time...

Link to Financial Review> May 14 2015 at 2:04 PM | Updated May 14 2015 at 6:05 PM The odds of the Trans-Pacific Partnership being done before the United States presidential election cranks up are little better than 50-50, which could push the deal into 2017, a veteran of Washington trade deal battles says. United States lobbyists Barry Jackson, left, and Tony Podesta say the TPP has to be completed this year or it will be held up by the US presidential election. United States lobbyists Barry Jackson, left, and Tony Podesta say the TPP has to be completed this...

The House on Thursday approved a key plank of President Obama's trade agenda after the push nearly imploded amid Democratic resistance last week, sending the bill to the Senate where it still faces an uncertain fate. The 218-208 vote nevertheless marked a significant victory for Obama and his pro-trade supporters in both parties. The vote came after Obama huddled Wednesday evening with congressional allies to try to craft a way forward.

If the largest trade deals in U.S. history have any chance of becoming law, they will require an unusual alliance between the Obama administration and pro-trade Republicans. An emerging consensus is that this union could be tested soon, with the upcoming “lame duck” session of Congress considering a procedural bill called “Trade Promotion Authority” that would smooth both negotiation and congressional consideration of U.S. free trade agreements. For TPA to pass (now or next year), President Obama and Republicans will need to work together to overcome opposition from Democrats allied with traditional anti-trade groups, like environmentalists and labor unions. But...

Sean Hannity tore apart GOP leadership for continuing their push to give President Barack Obama Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) as the House looks to set up a vote as early as this week on the legislation. On his Wednesday program, Hannity said House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel are “selling out American sovereignty,” adding that the secrecy of the bill shows those two and the Obama administration doesn’t “care what we think.” “In spite of all the calls, I’m being told, going into Congress — like 30 to 1, they’re still pushing [TPA] anyway because they...

On Friday, Congress disrupted President Obama’s plan for a sweeping transfer of U.S. sovereignty to an unaccountable group of foreign busybodies. Hurray for the stalwart Americans who resisted the demands of Obama, the Republican leadership, and the big-donor claque, but Speaker Boehner plans to give Congress another chance this week to make this dangerous mistake. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would turn over to globalists the power to issue regulations about U.S. trade, immigration, the environment, labor and commerce. It’s called a “living agreement” which means the globalists can amend and change the text of the so-called agreement after it has...

WikiLeaks releases today 17 secret documents from the ongoing TISA (Trade In Services Agreement) negotiations which cover the United States, the European Union and 23 other countries including Turkey, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, Taiwan & Israel -- which together comprise two-thirds of global GDP. "Services" now account for nearly 80 per cent of the US and EU economies and even in developing countries like Pakistan account for 53 per cent of the economy. While the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has become well known in recent months in the United States, the TISA is the larger component of the strategic TPP-TISA-TTIP...

Legal Memorandum #4 on Trade and Economic Freedom Why Trade Promotion Authority is Constitutional By Edwin Meese III and Todd F. Gaziano - November 2001 Congress is expected to vote soon on whether to grant trade promotion authority (TPA) to President George W. Bush. Some critics of TPA have suggested that it might compromise national sovereignty and may actually be unconstitutional. But an important aspect of national sovereignty is the right to enter into international agreements and to participate in their enforcement. Being bound by agreements, such as mutual defense treaties, does not weaken sovereign power even though it obligates...

America — and the world — are witnessing an extraordinary development. At least three hugely important mega-treaties are being lined up to be voted on soon in the U.S. Congress. They are the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade In Services Agreement (TISA).The texts of these agreements have been drafted in secrecy and remain secret today, except for portions that have been “illegally” leaked to the public. Moreover, they have been designed as “living agreements,” say the designers, which will continue to “evolve” and mutate, in defiance of the most basic principle of...

NumbersUSA Director of Government Relations Rosemary Jenks stated that if fast-track passed, Congress would not reject the Trade in Services Agreement, which could make the US “open up it’s immigration laws” on Monday’s “Laura Ingraham Show.” Jenks said, “We have had Ambassador Froman, the US Trade Rep., go to Congress on multiple occasions and assure members of Congress that the United States is not negotiating immigration in TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Well, we know that there is in fact an immigration chapter in TPP, but it looks relatively harmless. What he failed to tell us, and members of Congress, is...