Jobs? When will President Obama renegotiate NAFTA?

[Poboy]

While campaigning, you heard millions of Americans attest to the disappearance of secure industrial jobs, the devastated communities and shuttered small businesses that accompanied that job loss and the growing inequality in wealth and opportunity. You heard the clamor for fair trade instead of unregulated “free trade.” You even promised that, if elected, you would renegotiate a treaty that, 15 years after its adoption, is not meeting the social and economic needs of the American people or the needs of most Canadians or Mexicans, for that matter. Campaign rhetoric is not enough; changes are needed in our trade and investment policies. We therefore call upon you, immediately after you take office, to begin renegotiating NAFTA. An overhauled treaty should follow the Principles of Fair Trade , which should also be integral to future trade agreements and the basis for renegotiating existing trade treaties.

http://www.renegotiatenafta.org/

====

Laura Carlsen.Director, Americas Program, Center For International Policy
Posted January 12, 2009 | 07:59 PM (EST)
Obama Reaffirms Promise to Renegotiate NAFTA
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-carlsen/obama-reaffirms-promise-t_b_157316.html

====

Just another lie I guess.

[Brickbat]

1. After he signed the South Korean and Colombian FTAs, and what he had to say about unions during

those negotiations, it just reinforced how little interest this president has in rolling back the attacks labor has suffered over the past 30 years.

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. The UAW supports the S. Korean Trade Agreement

[Brickbat]

12. That's nice.

They're fucking up here. It happens.

ETA: I'll change what I said. The UAW was right, in a very short-term view, for their own current members of auto assembly plants, here. But that doesn't change the fact that the SKFTA will hurt many union workers -- including, in the long run, UAWs.

[Brickbat]

2. Oh, and EFCA? Remember that? Yeah.

[xchrom]

3. That one really irks. Nt

[Brickbat]

4. Agreed. All the talk about it during the campaign is what got me excited.

So much for that. Just talk.

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. The Senate would not pass that bill

Only 51 Senators voted for Cloture.

[Phlem]

5. Never

To many corporations making large amounts of profits sending jobs over seas.

-p

[onethatcares]

15. along with too many corporations

stuffing the pockets of too many politicians to make any changes anyway.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. Perhaps Mexico and Canada are not interested in renegotiating the treaty

[KharmaTrain]

8. No Votes In EIther House

He just can't wave a wand and make it go away. To nullify a treaty it has to pass the House and then get at least 60 (might even need 67) in the Senate. The GOTB's corporate masters will not allow their source of cheap labor and ways to avoid taxes and US environmental and health regulations to go away. Dare I say I don't think there's even a majority of Democrats who'd go along as jobs in the area and major contributors benefit from NAFTA. They're scared about losing the jobs they have remaining...not about what jobs could be.

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. Whoops. Replied to wrong reply

:dunce:

[Cleita]

11. Maybe on the 32nd of Julember. n/t

[Riftaxe]

13. I thought Jobs were just a blurb in the SOTUs

You mean he is finally going to take some action on unemployment and it's not even an election year?

[Vinee]

14. Right after hell freezes over.