Obama: Economic Crisis May Delay NAFTA Negotiations
(CBS)
"There are a lot of sensitivities right now because of the huge decline in world trade," Mr. Obama told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "As I've said before, NAFTA, the basic framework of the agreement has environmental and labor protections as side agreements -- my argument has always been that we might as well incorporate them into the full agreement so that they're fully enforceable."
He quickly stressed the importance of the trade relationship between the United States and her peaceful neighbor to the north.
"Canada is one of our most important trading partners. We rely on them heavily, there's $1.5 billion worth of trade going back and forth every day between the two countries and that it is not in anybody's interest to see that trade diminish," he said.
The president was also questioned about the 'Buy America' provision of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act which requires stimulus funds to be spent on U.S. goods and services.
"How concerned should [Canadians] be?" he was asked.
"I don't think they should be too concerned," Obama said. "You know, I think that if you look at history, one of the most important things during a worldwide recession of the sort that we're seeing now is that each country does not resort to 'beggar thy neighbor' policies, protectionist policies, they can end up further contracting world trade."
"My expectation," he continued, "is that where you have strong U.S. competitors who can sell products and services, that a lot of governors and mayors are going to want to try to find U.S. equipment or services, but that we are going to abide by our World Trade Organization and NAFTA obligations just as we always have."
The interview highlights some of the issues which the president is sure to be tested on during his first foreign trip Thursday to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
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The U.S. Federal Government sponsored the moving of factories outside the USA starting in 1956. It was supposed to be a temporary program but it never ended.
It evolved into the Maquiladora factory program in Mexico using impoverished workers to make goods for the USA.
From there it evolved into so called Free Trade which is not really trade. All discussions should begin with this fact.
By 1992, more than U.S. factories were moved to Mexico alone. After President Clinton pushed the passage of NAFTA and GATT trade agreements, the number of factories moved to Mexico quickly doubled to more than 4000. Soon after that President Clinton rushed $20 billion dollars to Mexico to save the peso and bail out the Mexican economy. He also funneled more money to Mexico through some international money funds. So in essence, the first stimulus package was given to a foreign nation.
None of this stop the tide of Mexican workers flooding into the U.S. seeking economic survival. ( Someone should have told Pres. Bush that were jobs in Mexico that Mexican workers would not take. )
Before Perot, Sir James Goldsmith sounded the alarm for years. He wrote the book The Trap. Manuel Castell who wrote several books about Globalization, forecasted most of everything that has happened due to Free Trade and Globalization. All of this happened from ten to twenty years ago. Free Trade has a long history of failures.
No one seems to want to talk about the fact that Free Trade can not be compared to any trading in the past since it is primarily based on moving production from place to place for the sake of cheaper labor.
Our economy based on making money on money instead of making things has burned out because of this. One of the major tangible values which acts as a money standard has been deflated to a point where it impacted all the money products which were the main money standards of our times. Printing images on paper and calling it money requires alot of manipulations to add value to it. Globalist Free Traders and Investors are finding out that in cutting the value of labor and workers, the value of paper money is affected too.
If you want a chronical of events behind our current economic crisis, you can start at Tapart News and Art that Talks by Ray Tapajna. The chronical goes back to the early 1990s and many of the published letters could be re-published today and know one would be able to tell the difference in time.
See http://tapsearch.com/tapartnews/
Explore the lost worlds in the globalist Flat World at
http://tapsearch.com/flatworld/
See also http://tapsearch.com/clinton
http://tapearch.com/backfire
http://www.bizarrepolitics.com/obama-cart-before-horse-economy
http://www.bizarrepolitics.com/cart-before-the-horse-economy and note series of reviews of Alan Greenspan's book The Age of Turbulence
The real question of our times is this:
Who said we had to compete like this with one another for the same jobs in a global economic arena ?
And note too, President Clinton actually enjoyed a massive stimulus package. It was the y2k crisis. Greenspan says in his book that billions if not trillions were poured into fixing the y2k problems causing an artificial economy. And note that the y2k crisis was the result of more than a million workers losing their jobs in the computer industry due to so called Free Trade.
NAFTA, just like the CRA has been misrepresented by the Republicans to allow them to boaster their Corporate Wall Street Profit Margin by cutting the cost of working class producers.
NAFTA has turned out to be a race to the bottom for the cheapest available workers. Everyone involved has been taken advantage of by the Republican (and, Bill Clinton) North American Free Trade Agreement.
Federal obligations exceed world GDP-$65.5 trillion 2
Posted by Deletedid
Yes the 66 Trillion dollar obligation is actually a very old story that came to light in 2003.
It was during the buildup to the Iraq war and as Bush was pushing for his taxcuts for the wealthy. Then treasury secretary Paul O''neil released a treasury commissioned report stating the country faced obligations of 66 trillion dollars and an immediate across the board tax hike of 67% would be needed to close the shortfall. Bush, ordered the report shelved because he didn''t want anything getting in the way of those taxcuts for the haves and have mores (his base). I don''t recall many of you republicans being to concerned when all this was happening though, very strange this new found fiscal responsibility you all seem to have developed over the last two and a half months.
Nafta only works for the rich multi-national corporations and robs the citizens of our country of jobs.
Repeal Nafta now.
American goods for American people, American Jobs for American people. Stop funding profligate countries who use us.
Posted by drinuk at 04:06 AM : Feb 18, 2009
------------
I agree, but this is going to hurt corporate America who have been shipping jobs overseas for a couple of decades.
Still, I''d like to see a rise in new American companies who employ Americans and produce goods in America.
American goods for American people, American Jobs for American people. Stop funding profligate countries who use us.
TRUE AMOUNT IS NOW 65.5 TRILLION
Visit Worldnetdaily and see!!!
See stories media refuses to post - WND would be sued if they lied!!!
Federal obligations exceed world GDP-$65.5 trillion 2
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Unstimulated! Dow plunges 300
-Rumors say Harper bailed Canadian Banks out twice as much by a typical Canadian as a typical American. Now Canadian Banks did not declare a loss during the last fiscal exercice... isn''t that strange?
-Question: did Canadian Prime Minister Harper bail American Banks out by way of Canadian Banks????
Posted by waitn2ctruth at 10:22 PM : Feb 17, 2009...............something else Ross Perot said....."It''s time to take the shovel and clean the barn"....How I wish now ,,,we had taken that advice,,,,and we still need to.