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The Spectacle Blog
Some good news from Capitol Hill: The House and Senate both passed the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea this evening. But all of these deals were negotiated during the Bush administration (before getting stalled in the Democrat-controlled Congress). Obama insisted on renegotiating all three agreements, and didn’t submit the revised agreements to Congress until nine days ago, just enough time to pass them before South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak’s address to a joint session of Congress tomorrow. The Korean agreement — the most significant one, given the size of South Korea’s economy — was a source of some embarrassment last year, when Obama promised to have the renegotiation completed in time for the G-20 summit in November, then failed to get it done until December. Happily, unlike many of this president’s mistakes, this is one that we can finally put behind us. But given the state of the economy in recent years, the small but real boost to GDP that these agreements will generate would have been nice to have earlier.
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More Blog Posts by John Tabin
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/10/12/free-trade-agreements-better-l
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aware| 10.13.11 @ 6:14AM
"Free trade" means we stand still while they "catch up". Sometimes it means we back up while they move forward. Free trade agreements are how the State central planners interfere on a global scale instead of just a national scale. But what the hell, as long as yuppies get their I-shit cheap who cares about jobs.
Red Phillips | 10.13.11 @ 9:15AM
This is an outrage, and it is an embarrassment that someone who calls himself a conservative or a magazine that calls itself conservative would support these trade deals. First if you are a free trader, these deals are not. They are managed trade on a grand scale. But more importantly they sacrifice American sovereignty and end around the normal legislative process. No conservative, whether a free trader or not, should tolerate this obnoxious sacrifice of our sovereignty and blatant disregard for our constitutional delegation powers.
So Tabin, do you support supra-national entities judging the legality of American laws? If so, turn in your card, because NO patriotic American conservative could ever support such nonsense.
Outrageous! Simply outrageous!
Simon Templar| 10.13.11 @ 4:04PM
Red Phillips, I would like to learn more about what is in these trade deals. Can you suggest any resources on the subject? You made some really interesting points and I would like to know more.
Red Phillips | 10.13.11 @ 5:44PM
This is a good website with many links.
http://stopuskoreanafta.org/
Red Phillips | 10.13.11 @ 5:49PM
Here is something on why this is an end around the normal legislative process.
http://conservativetimes.org/?p=8044
Here is something on the sovereignty issue.
http://stopuskoreanafta.org/20.....vereignty/
Red Phillips | 10.13.11 @ 9:25AM
Not only is this bad policy, it is incredibly bad politics. No wonder they call the GOP the stupid party. The reason these things stalled so long and had to be voted on hastily is because they are politically toxic. (It is also why they must bypass the normal legislative process.) Obama was likely dragging his feet on these on purpose because he knows they are toxic, but now as the election approaches has to do the bidding of his pay masters.
Survey after survey show that Republicans are MORE LIKELY to oppose these trade deals than are Democrats and Tea Partiers are the most opposed. The Republicans pretend they want to be the party of middle-class folks in flyover country and then support the policies of elitist plutocrats.
The stupid party indeed.
Sean| 10.13.11 @ 9:55AM
I am not a fan of these managed trade deals we keep having.
Clint| 10.13.11 @ 4:06PM
Dr.Ron Paul,
“This pact is a sneaky form of international preemption, undermining the critical checks and balances and freedoms established by the U.S. Constitution’s reservation of many rights to the people or state or government…[it] sets up foreign tribunals to which the United States must submit for judgment. We urge you to oppose President Obama’s Korea Agreement. "
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.
jgo| 10.13.11 @ 8:39PM
In light of prior "free trade" agreements, I must admit to some suspicion that these measures titled "free trade" don't have anything to do with free and honest trade.
But where can anyone put their hands on the official, signed copies of these agreements? All we get are 3rd party interpretations. Of course, I don't expect the agreements, themselves, to be written in clear, American English prose, but in bizarre bureaucrateze, where "up" means "down", "cap" means "uncapped", "free" means "heavily regulated and subsidized", "enforceable" means "unenforceable", and producers in the USA who did not have political friends deeply involved in the drafting take major hits.
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