Obama signs three long-delayed trade pacts into law

[n2doc]

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2011 (Reuters) — President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law long-sought free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia that are expected to lift exports by $13 billion a year and create American jobs.


The White House Oval Office signing ceremony of the bills, strongly opposed by many of his fellow Democrats, capped a five-year push by Republicans to get them approved.

(Reporting by Alister Bull; editing by Vicki Allen)

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre79k3ch-us-obama-trade/

Leave it to a democrat to get republican desires fulfilled..

[Donnachaidh]

1. *create American jobs*

yeah -- like the Finnish jobs that were *supposed* to be American jobs.

More of that *change you can believe in* :puke:

[OhioChick]

10. No shit....

:puke:

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. And Al Gore wanted Fast Track to reach the same agreements

The deal with Panama is irrelevant, but the deals with Korea and Columbia are essential as status quo was unacceptable and disproportionately favored their exports over ours and in the case of Korea their FTA with the European Union put us at a terrible disadvantage.

[ehrnst]

19. Panama is now slated to become a haven for hiding income

due to its banking laws. The 1% will welcome this.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

36. You don't need free trade for that,

[Romulox]

22. Al Gore is building cars in Finland with US Taxpayer $$$. So much for "free trade".

:hi:

[Fumesucker]

3. Only Nixon could go to China..

And only a Democrat could get a big chunk of the Democratic party rank and file to swallow this crap.

[woo me with science]

5. They will continue this crap until we stop them.

The lesser of two evils is still evil.

[Tatiana]

4. The South Korean deal sucks hard.

Nothing positive will come of it. Nothing. We will be exporting more JOBS to that region, unfortuntely.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. It is much better than status quo...

Where many non-automotive Korean exports to the US were significantly tariff free already by way of the WTO Information Technology Agreement and Korea already has a Free Trade agreement with the European Union when the EU and US exports more or less the same goods to Korea. How does a leveling of the playing field "suck hard" when status quo was as untenable an arrangement as is conceivable?

[TheKentuckian]

7. Establish punishing tariffs until we are dealt with fairly or they starve from lack of sales.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

9. Because that has worked marvelously well every time we tried it...

The US has never won a trade war without inflicting even greater damage on ourselves. We don't do mercantilism very well.

[bahrbearian]

12. We survived most of the 19th & 20th century with tariffs, When did we have a trade war?

When did we lose?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

21. The purpose of tariffs historically was government revenue

Not erecting trade barriers,

And we have had many trade wars, the most destructive of which was in the aftermath of Smoot–Hawley which which saw US exports plunge by two thirds as other nations retaliated. The UK imposed a 100% tariff on many US exports. Spain imposed a 150% tariff on US cars. The French and Swiss shut-out US goods almost entirely and Canada scorched earth on agriculture.

For this the US realized absolutely no benefit and plunged the US economy further into depression.

[Better Believe It]

25. The 1930's. The trade war contributed to and deepened the world-wide depression.

[Romulox]

27. That's the Chicago-school explanation. By no means universally held. nt

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

30. The events surrounding Smoot Hawley really aren't in dispute

Unless you have the same collection of bookmarks as Hannah Bell.

[Romulox]

31. Oh no. Answer the Sony TV thing before trying another diversion.

:hi:

[Better Believe It]

39. And World War II deficit spending helped to end the depression.

[pampango]

38. FDR thought so too. He promised and delivered lower tariffs as one tool to fight the Depression.

"When the Republicans regained power after the war (WWI) they restored the usual high (tariff) rates, with the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922. When the Great Depression hit, international trade shrank drastically. The crisis baffled the GOP, and it unwisely tried its magic one last time in the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. This time it backfired, as Canada, Britain, Germany, France and other industrial countries retaliated with their own tariffs and special, bilateral trade deals. American imports and exports both went into a tailspin. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Dealers made promises about lowering tariffs on a reciprocal country-by-country basis."

In 1934, the (Democratic) U.S. Congress, in a rare delegation of authority, passed the Reciprocal Tariff Act of 1934 which authorized the executive branch to negotiate bilateral tariff reduction agreements with other countries. The prevailing view then was that trade liberalization may help stimulate economic growth. However, no one country was willing to liberalize unilaterally. Between 1934 and 1945, the executive branch negotiated over 32 bilateral trade liberalization agreements with other countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariffs_in_United_States_history#1913_to_present

In one sense republicans have finally abandoned their historical commitment to high tariffs (the Fordney-McCumber-Coolidge Tariff of 1922 and the Smoot-Hawley-Hoover Tariff Act of 1930) and been converted to the FDR view that lower tariffs and multilateral control of trade are good for the country and world.

I wonder sometimes whether the belated conversion of republicans to FDR's viewpoint on trade has caused some to reflexively question whether FDR was right and to adopt the old republican position that high tariffs are good.

[Marrah_G]

15. Could you give some examples?

I'm willing to listen with an open mind if you can explain how these trade deals will benefit the American workers and not hard their incomes.

[Romulox]

23. No. No he can't. nt

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

26. How is that Sony TV working for ya?

The ones you have been buying since the 1970's....

[Romulox]

28. LOLWUT?

Surely, you must have me mistaken with someone else. I can say without fear of error that I purchased zero televisions in the 1970s. :hi: :silly:

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

32. I apologize, that was DainBramaged.

Your shared narrative sort of runs together in my mind.

[Romulox]

35. I know. I confuse you with RB McTexas and the "Thank GAWD it passed" guy all the time, too. nt

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

33. I apologize, that was DainBramaged.

Your shared narrative sort of runs together in my mind.

[Romulox]

34. OK. But it was still an irrelevant/diversionary post, mistaken identity notwithstanding.

:hi:

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

24. It is pretty straight forward,

Korea and the European Union have a Free Trade agreement, without an equivalent agreement US exports to Korea will be at a permanent disadvantage.

[Marrah_G]

29. I'll have to go do some research, I was hoping for something a little more detailed

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bahrbearian]

11. I'm still waiting for my "Delicious Indian Mango"

[Marrah_G]

13. Just fucking great

So instead of fixing Nafta he gives us 3 more of the same. I wish Campaign Obama was our president.

[Brickbat]

14. Shameful.

[FormerDittoHead]

16. Republicans liked it, 3/4 of House Democrats voted AGAINST. Tell you anything?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/21/obama-signs-3-trade-deals-biggest-since-nafta/

>Obama signed them with none of the ceremonial fanfare that normally accompanies such triumphs. Republicans, while supportive of the deals, continue to find fault with Obama's trade policies. And nearly three-fourths of House Democrats voted against the trade measures.

[DainBramaged]

17. I'm sure this will be cheered by the Union loving job creators here

NOT.


Fucked again, I keep hearing Joe Pesci's immortal words as leo Getz from Lethal Weapon 2,

"They FUCK YOU at the drive-thru, okay? They FUCK YOU at the drive-thru! They know you're gonna be miles away before you find out you got fucked! They know you're not gonna turn around and go back, they don't care. So who gets fucked?"


We just got fucked at the drive thru.

[Brickbat]

18. +1 for the reference -- and the damn truth.

[ThomWV]

20. And not a bit surprising that it was signed on a Friday

The only thing that is out of the norm is that they didn't wait until the end of the day to do it.

[QC]

37. Hopetastic!!! n/t