Posted on 10/12/2011 7:05:21 PM PDT by Kaslin
Leadership: The biggest free-trade pacts since NAFTA were passed by the House Wednesday night, with the Senate likely to follow. As a result, America will reap 250,000 jobs and $13 billion in exports. Where are the celebrations?
The strangest aspect of the passage of free trade treaties with Colombia, South Korea and Panama, with final votes taken after five long years, is the disconnect between the big economic gains expected for the U.S., and the reticence of congressional Democrats and the White House, both of which finally got something right on the economy.
As we went to press, the pacts had been passed by the House, with the Senate expected to vote soon. With bipartisanship like that, lawmakers should be cheering loudly for a true "jobs bill" that costs nothing.
Yet as a Democratic aide told Roll Call on Wednesday, "Republicans don't want to give the president a victory, Democrats are split and everyone is distracted."
Excuse us, but this is some of the best economic news in three years. It deserves a victory dance.
It's a fact these treaties will bring new orders for factories, save family farms, strengthen strategic alliances with countries well worth having as allies, and open up breathtaking new opportunities in fast-growing markets. It needs to be acknowledged.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Free trade? Try shipping something to Canada with UPS.
Yeah, well, aren't these the SAME trade pact that Dubya kept asking the moron Demonrats to pass, and they wouldn't? Now Hussein wants to claim credit.
Hussein is a punk.
"Reap" 250,000 jobs? I'm sorry, but I'd believe IBD if they said the pacts would export 250,000 jobs.
These free-trade treaties are victories for the banksters and people owning Stateside stocks with large overseas presence -- multinationals, in other words.
On the analogy of NAFTA, this will cost jobs bigtime.
These days politicians and 'experts' pull these numbers out of thin air and just spit them out. Just once I would like to see somebody ask them to put up the proof. Their numbers are completely meaningless. If half of what they say is true, we would have 600 million people employed in this country by now. It reminds me of the old body counts of enemy dead in Viet Nam. I think we wiped out the entire population of the country three times over before we ran away
If it is free trade, why for the Korean agreement do duties Korean goods going into the USA go away immediately while duties on some US goods going into Korea have a five year phase out period?
These agreements do not create jobs in the US. Where are the studies showing the 10-15 year net US jobs impact of NAFTA and China WTO? Such a study should show not only number of net jobs created and/or lost but also the impact on personal income — i.e. did the new jobs created (if any) pay more or less than the jobs lost.
Isn’t it strange with billions of dollars the US government spends on studies and consultants there isn’t a study showing the net impact of these modern “free trade” agreements on the US economy? Yet every time one is up for a vote we are told how many millions of jobs will be created. Where’s the beef?
“Free trade? Try shipping something to Canada with UPS.”
Amen, I tried. It sucked. Was not worth it.
The US needs to reward those who will trade freely and honestly with us and punish those who don't.
I’ve heard it several times and it has been verified by experts as being true: “even a blind pig occasionally finds an acorn”. I think the Food Stamp President and his lackeys are counting on this adage to prove that they are not total failures.
I’m sure Samsung will be dancing in the proverbial street.
free trade with countries that have lower pay, lower taxes and lower tariffs will probably send jobs to those countries. Not that its necessarily bad except when leftists have made the US a bad place to invest, then its a bad thing.
Japan has over 20 nuke power plants, maybe he should appologize for the earthquake in April.
Probably in South Korea, Columbia and Panama where the actual benefits will be realized at America's expense, per usual for these so-called free trade agreements.
“It’s a fact these treaties will bring new orders for factories, save family farms, strengthen strategic alliances with countries well worth having as allies, and open up breathtaking new opportunities in fast-growing markets.”
Lies. If any of this were true then NAFTA would have ushered in a golden age of prosperity, which it did not. The factories that get new orders will be in the other countries staffed by slave labor, the family farms saved will be outside the US, the treaties will tie us mostly to 3rd-world dungheaps with lots of slave labor, and the only breathtaking thing will be how fast our standard of living will drop as our own citizens struggle to find employment, because there is no competing with .35/hour wages.
These free trade pacts help our trading partners. They hurt American workers by undercutting the money American importers (formally American manufacturers) are willing to pay for American labor.
These agreements are blueprints for exporting American jobs. Think of them as jobs bills for our trading partners.
“3rd-world dungheaps with lots of slave labor”
Are we thinking of the same South Korea?
Lies. If any of this were true then NAFTA would have ushered in a golden age of prosperity, which it did not. “
We got about 10 million new jobs in the 6 years after NAFTA Passed. not saying it was NAFTA, but the opposite claim is unsupported.
All the criticisms are off-base. Panama already gets favored trade with us, so the deal opens up Panama to our companies while not changing Panama’s exports to us. It’s a win.
Agreed. Free trade is entirely in one direction.
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