Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Free Trade: The Selling Out of America

In the last presidential campaign, both candidates made a point of saying they would add more jobs, especially manufacturing jobs. But in the last three decades, both parties and all presidents have supported "Free Trade" agreements which have decimated American manufacturing. These agreements enable American companies to send manufacturing to other countries where there are low wages, no unions, and little or no environmental protection.  These companies then bring the manufactured goods back to this country duty free.

These agreements are:

NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement - Mexico, Canada)  1994, Clinton

PNTR (Permanent Normal Trade Relations) China, 2000, Clinton

 Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) 2004, Bush

United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA), 2004, Bush

United States - Morocco  FTA, 2004, Bush

United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, 2004, Bush

United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), 2005, Bush

United States-Bahrain FTA, 2006, Bush

United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA), 2006, Bush

United States-Oman FTA, 2009, Bush

 United States-Jordan Free Trade Agreement 2010, Obama

US-Korea Trade Agreement,  2011, Obama

US-Panama Trade Agreement,  2011, Obama

 US-Columbia Trade Agreement,  2011, Obama

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, (Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States)  in negotiation, Obama

A United States - Israel FTA was initialized in 1985.

See:  http://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements

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