Congress passes trade pacts with Korea, Colombia, Panama
B Y DON M C INTOSH
A SSOCIATE E DITOR
By lopsided margins, Congress on
Oct. 12 approved trade deals with Ko-
rea, Colombia, and Panama. The agree-
ments were opposed by labor groups,
but passed with the support of nearly all
Republicans and up to a third of De-
mocrats.
The Korea agreement is the most
economically significant since the 1992
passage of North American Free Trade
Act (NAFTA), which brought the
United States and Canada closer to
Mexico.
The Colombia treaty is symbolically
important to labor because it fosters
closer U.S. business ties to a country
where more unionists are assassinated
each year than the rest of the world
combined: 2,680 in last two decades,
including 51 last year and 23 so far this
year. Only 6 percent of the murders
have resulted in prosecution.
U.S. labor unions object to the
Panama deal chiefly because of that
country’s role as a haven for money
laundering and tax avoidance by U.S.
corporations.
The three trade agreements were
signed by President George W. Bush in
2007, but then- House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif.) refused to allow a vote
to ratify them. But President Barack
Obama announced in his 2011 State of
the Union address that he would ask
Congress to approve the treaties. And
last month, the White House began
touting the NAFTA-style treaties as
part of the president’s jobs plan.
The AFL-CIO argued the opposite:
that the treaties — the Korea deal espe-
cially — are job-losers. The AFL-CIO
made clear its opposition to the three
treaties in an Oct. 11 letter to Congress.
“Members of Congress will be held
accountable for their votes on these
trade deals,” said AFL-CIO President
Rich Trumka Oct. 12. The trade votes
are likely to be included when the AFL-
CIO produces its annual score card
which rates members of Congress. As
for Obama, AFL-CIO trade policy spe-
cialist Celeste Drake likened the differ-
ences over trade to a disagreement
FINAL APPEAL: Two days before a scheduled vote in Congress, fair trade
activists gather outside the office of U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) to
urge him reject NAFTA-style trade agreements with Colombia, Korea, and
Panama. Blumenauer ended up voting against the Colombia treaty, but for
the other two.
among friends and family.
In four-and-a-half hours of debate in
the Republican-controlled House, again
and again supporters said the treaties
will create jobs in the United States,
while opponents said they will destroy
them.
“We are number one in exporting
jobs to foreign lands over the last 20
years,” said Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.)
“Every day we lose 1,370 manufactur-
ing jobs because of our failed trade
policies. And guess what? These agree-
ments are duplicates of all the failed
past trade agreements.”
“Like all the other free trade agree-
ments we’ve entered,” DeFazio said,
“these are designed to benefit multina-
tional companies seeking cheap labor
and fewer restrictions in terms of the
environment and labor protections.”
The United States has run trade
deficits since the 1980s, and those
deficits have averaged half a trillion
dollars in recent years.
Polls show the public thinks U.S.
trade policy is a failure. A September
2010 poll commissioned by NBC
News and the Wall Street Journal found
that 69 percent of Americans think that
“free trade agreements between the
United States and other countries cost
the U.S. jobs.” And 53 percent said free
trade agreements hurt the United States
— a substantial increase from the 32
percent who thought that in 1999.
“The working people and the mid-
dle class don’t want these trade agree-
ments, not with Panama, not with Ko-
rea, and not with Colombia,” said U.S.
Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine) during
the House debate. Michaud, a former
millworker, introduced himself as a
proud card-carrying member of the
United Steelworkers.
“They want the hope and change
that they voted for. How much clearer
could the American people be? They
want policy written by citizens, not by
chief executives.”
In the House, the Korea agreement
passed 278-151, supported by 91 per-
cent of Republicans and 31 percent of
Democrats. The Panama agreement,
passed 300-129, had support from 97.5
percent of Republicans and 35 percent
of Democrats. And the Colombia deal,
which passed 262-167, had the support
of 96 percent of Republicans and 16
percent of Democrats.
In the Senate, the Korea deal passed
83-15, supported by 96 percent of Re-
publicans and 72.5 percent of Democ-
rats. The Panama deal passed 77-22,
supported by 98 percent of Republicans
and 59 percent of Democrats. And the
Colombia deal passed 66 – 33, sup-
ported by 94 percent of Republicans
and 41 percent of Democrats.
In Oregon’s House delegation, Re-
publican Greg Walden voted for all
three treaties; Democrat Peter DeFazio
voted against all three; and Democrats
Earl Blumenauer and Kurt Schrader
voted against the Colombia treaty but
for the Korea and Panama treaties. U.S.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) voted for all
three agreements, while U.S. Sen. Jeff
Merkley (D-Ore.) voted against all
three agreements.
Southwest Washington Republican
Representative Jaime Herrera voted for
all three agreements. Washington’s
U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell and
Patty Murray, both Democrats, voted
for all three agreements.
A tradeoff to secure Democratic
votes for the trade deals was renewal of
the Trade Adjustment Assistance
(TAA) program. Republicans wanted
to scrap the program entirely, but nego-
tiated with the Obama Administration
on a scaled-back version in order to
move the votes on the trade pacts.
TAA ensures that workers who lose
their jobs as a result of trade, and
through no fault of their own, have ac-
cess to resources, benefits and job train-
ing. However, under the new TAA,
public-sector workers will no longer be
eligible, and unemployment benefits
and a health insurance tax credit were
reduced.
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