Warren disputes Obama’s promises on trade deal
By Peter Schroeder and Vicki Needham - 05/18/15
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is taking another swing at President Obama on trade, this time arguing the president’s promises to protect workers are mostly talk.
The liberal lawmaker issued a staff report on Monday morning contending that while policymakers frequently argue that trade agreements come packed with robust worker protections, the reality does not live up to the rhetoric.
The criticism comes amid an aggressive push by the president and his Cabinet to sell congressional lawmakers, especially wary liberal Democrats, on the far-reaching importance of a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal.
The president has been touting the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as the “most progressive trade deal in history,” while Warren argues that, despite similar claims from Democratic and Republican administrations over the years, enforcement of labor standards has been lax, driving down working conditions across the globe and dragging American workers down as well.
“Again and again, proponents of free trade agreements claim that this time, a new trade agreement has strong and meaningful protections,” the Warren report states. “Again and again, those protections prove unable to stop the worst abuses.”
The report marks the latest rally as Obama and Warren go publicly and bitingly back and forth on the issue of trade.
The president is pushing hard for Congress to pass legislation that would give the White House trade promotion authority, also known as fast-track, to negotiate global agreements with other nations, while preventing Congress from amending them after deal is struck.
But liberals like Warren, alongside labor unions, have fiercely pushed back against the president, with both sides accusing the other of playing fast and loose with the facts, or just simply being wrong on the issue.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday that he expects fast-track legislation to pass the Senate this week before Congress leaves for the weeklong Memorial Day recess.
The bill’s chances in the House are murkier with the vast majority of liberal Democrats already lined up against fast-track, which would smooth passage of the TPP.
The House is aiming to take up the measure in June.
In her new report, Warren claims that the U.S. repeatedly fails to fully enforce worker protections included in previous free trade agreements, finding that before 2008, the U.S. had not accepted a single formal complaint about worker mistreatment under a trade agreement.
Since then, the Labor Department has accepted only five claims from other countries.
Warren’s office also said that the U.S. government does not have a system in place to determine if other countries are adhering to previously agreed upon worker protections, leaving that work primarily to the nations subjected to those requirements.
And those nations oftentimes fail to protect workers, Warren argued. The U.S. entered into a free trade agreement with Colombia in 2011, but since that time, 105 union activists have been killed and 1,337 others received death threats, according to Warren.
But the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) refutes those criticisms, pointing to a February report detailing the extensive efforts being made by the Obama administration to improve labor standards around the world.
The USTR report highlights the first-ever labor case filed last year against Guatemala under the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement for failure to enforce labor laws such as the right to organize and bargain collectively.
“The Obama administration is taking unprecedented actions to promote and protect fundamental labor rights and ensure acceptable conditions of work,” the report says.
The report focuses on U.S. efforts in countries such as Colombia, Jordan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Swaziland, Haiti and Burma.
“With both American values and interests at stake, the administration is committed to maintaining the effort to ensure that the benefits of trade are broadly shared and to supporting a growing and vibrant middle class around the world,” the report said.
The United States and Colombia have “worked closely on implementation of the [labor action] plan, drawing on strong engagement by stakeholders in both countries,” the report said.
“Important progress has been made but much more work remains and the United States will continue to work closely with Colombia in this process.”
The report also points out that under North American Free Trade Agreement labor provisions were part of a side agreement and weren’t a central goal.
They said TPP goes well beyond that.
The administration is seeking rules that require countries to provide workers with fundamental rights “as well as new protections for importing goods made with forced labor, adopting laws on acceptable conditions of work and upholding labor standards in export processing zones,” the report said.
“The Obama administration has insisted that labor provisions be at the core of the agreement, subject to full dispute settlement and the full range of trade sanctions.”
NAFTA
the BUSH, CLINTON(S), and OBAMA DEVICE TO DESTROY THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS….
Is it working?
WHY BILLIONAIRES WANT OPEN BORDERS
AMNESTY: America’s death warrant
THE CONSPIRACY to DESTROY AMERICA’S
BORDERS… Obama and his Wall Street banksters
“This nation no longer is a democratic
republic...rather it has become a tool of the super-rich members of the above mentioned elite who
preselect our presidents based on their cooperation and complicity with the
elite’s ultimate goals. Obama has, in their opinion done superbly carrying out
the plans well laid out for him by his backers.”
WIKILEAKS EXPOSES OBAMA’S SECRET AGENDA OF SURRENDERING
AMERICA’S BORDERS TO NARCOMEX:
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN:
Did Obamanomics destroy the American middle
class and build the LA RAZA Mexican welfare state in its place?
AMERICA: No
Legal Need Apply!!!
But we still
get the tax bills for Mexico’s crime tidal wave and anchor baby welfare state
in our open borders!
“Meanwhile,
millions of native-born Americans, especially men, have abandoned the job
market altogether. The percentage of men aged 25 to 54 who are working or
looking for work has dropped to the lowest point in recorded history.”
JUST LOOK AROUND YOU… when do you see a job not
held by a Mexican?
Labor
statistics show that foreign-born workers account for all net gains in U.S.
employment in the past seven years, according to a group that advocates low
immigration.
The Center for
Immigration Studies issued
a report Friday that found 1.5 million fewer U.S.-born workers employed in 2014
than prior to the recession in 2007. Foreign-born employment for
both legal and illegal immigrants increased by more than 2 million workers
during the same time period.
THE OBAMA ASSAULT
ON THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS
“The
goal of the Obama administration, working with the Republicans and local
governments, is to roll back the living conditions of the vast majority of the
population to levels not seen since the 19th century, prior to the advent of
the eight-hour day, child labor laws, comprehensive public education, pensions,
health benefits, workplace health and safety regulations, etc.”
“In
response to the ruthless assault of the financial oligarchy, spearheaded by
Obama, the working class must advance, no less ruthlessly, its own policy.”
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