Thursday, April 23, 2015

Strange bedfellows on TPP

I had noted before that Obama was on the same side than some Republicans on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), and on the role of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in general. Yesterday, Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz co-authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in favor of fast track authority, which they avoid saying is giving power to Obama and strangely suggest it would empower Congress, and the TPP.

So not only is Obama for TPP, and he thinks that Elizabeth Warren is wrong in opposing it, but he agrees with Ryan and Cruz. By the way, Hillary is not much better on the free trade (and Bill signed NAFTA), even though it seems that she has not endorsed the TPP deal... yet. So mainstream Dems are on trade in bed with corporations, together with the GOP, which is pretty unified on this topic as far as I can tell. The recurrent problem is that there is no party for labor anymore. And not just in the US.

PS: For theoretical arguments against Free Trade go here and here.

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