"Free Trade" is not a complicated issue, Hilary [View All]

[Armstead]

As usual, Hilary is taking a pseudo-populist position on "free trade" while muddying it up by saying it needs further study.

"Further study" is the purgatory that most issues get sent to in today's McPolitics.

So Hilary, let me help you here, if you want to be a candidate of clarity.

"Free Trade" as it has been defined for the last 15 years is not really complicated. It was a scam by those who pushed for it, and a boneheaded mistake by those who supported it in the belief that it was a good thing.

When you get behind all of the fine print and gobbeldygook that was used to gloss over its' inherent flaws, the whole issue boils down to this.

International trade is good, when it does not take away the ability of nations to determine their own policies and destinies, based on their specific needs. Some sort of broad international trade policy could also be helpful, if it is limited in scope to moderating in specific disputes.

But when it is used as a Trojan Horse to impose one economic philosophy -- Corporate Colonialism -- on the entire planet, it is bad. That's what happened when "free trade" was rammed through in the 1980's and 90's.

It is absolutely stupid to negotiate convoluted global trade pacts like the WTO that take away the economic, political and social sovereignty of individual nations. You can't apply a "one size fits all" set of rules that apply both to the most advanced nations and the least advanced ones....And when it is attempted to deal with the discrepancies, it only makes it more convoluted.

It doesn't make sense -- except for those with a vested interest in exploiting labor and resources in a manner that hurts everyone but the upper echelon. Ultimately, it drives down the real-people economies of advanced nations while also suppressing the actual development of strong domestic economies among the poorer nations.

Likewise, it is stupid to have regional trade pacts like NAFTA that lump together advanced economies like the US and Canada with a less advanced economy like Mexico.

Dennis Kucinich has it right. Scrap this crap, and go back and negotiate realistic and principled trade agreements among individual nations.