Fair-trade Obama

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Fair-trade Obama

(Wednesday 19 November 2008)

ANN DOUGLAS






Next president will mix protectionism with fair trade, writes ANN DOUGLAS.

US DEMOCRATS and their allies are hailing the election of president-elect Barack Obama as a victory for fair traders - those who contend that the neoliberal policies of past administrations were a recipe for unemployment, the decimation of domestic industry and environmental degradation.


US pro-democracy group Public Citizen (PC) has released a report which argues that Mr Obama's win marks the first time in modern US history "that a candidate advocating a shift in our trade policies, in a decisively pro-worker, pro-consumer, pro-environment direction, has been elected president."

On the other side of the political spectrum, Dan Griswold of the right-wing Cato Institute think tank is equally stark in his assessment. "We are going to see the US retreat from its long-standing leadership in the global economy."


Mr Obama has made it clear that he intends to expand trade, but he insists that trade agreements must support US manufacturing jobs and include enforceable labour and environmental standards.


Fair-trade commitments became part of his election platform, which included what PC describes as a "reform agenda not seen in past Democratic platforms."


Mr Obama specified that, under his leadership, no future bilateral trade agreements "will stop the government from protecting the environment, food safety or the health of its citizens, give greater rights to foreign investors than to US investors, require the privatisation of our vital public services or prevent developing country governments from adopting humanitarian licencing policies to improve access to life-saving medications."


Mr Obama has indicated that he intends to renegotiate the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.


The PC report points out that the US election produced a net gain of 32 "fair traders," five in the Senate and 27 in Congress.


PC director Lori Wallach said that she suspects that "a shrinking number of members of Congress will dare to pledge fair trade at home and vote for NAFTA expansions."


Among two Republican incumbents in the House of Representatives ousted by Democrats who were campaigning on fair-trade issues were Phil English of Pennsylvania and Robin Hayes of North Carolina, who both cast decisive votes in 2005, when the House passed the Central America Free Trade Agreement by a two-vote margin.


"Free trade has been devastating to our district," said Democrat representative-elect Larry Kissell, a former textile worker who defeated Mr Hayes.


"We have called for a free-trade moratorium until we see good jobs coming back to this district," he added.


A moratorium could effectively sideline three bilateral free-trade agreements, with Colombia, South Korea and Panama, which have been negotiated but await congressional approval.


The Bush administration has been piling pressure on legislators to back the Colombia accord.


But most Democrats point out that Bogota has not done enough to curb violence against trade union organisers and members.


Democrats and trade unionists also say that the South Korean accord does not adequately address the issue of South Korea selling 770,000 vehicles in the US in 2007 while buying only about 6,200 US vehicles.


Mr Griswold of the Cato Institute suggested that the only bilateral agreement with a chance of getting congressional approval may be the one with Panama because its products do not upset US constituencies.


"Obama has made it clear that he will not cross important constituencies in his party, such as organised labour," he said.