[CTC] Free trade critics hit Obama over Nike visit

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Anyone with supporters or friends in Oregon, please encourage them to attend ORFTC’s protest at Nike on Friday morning <http://oregonfairtrade.org/>, and another in downtown Portland tonight…


http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2015/05/07/obama-free-trade-nike-oregon/70937482/
Free trade critics hit Obama over Nike visit


Critics who are already upset with President Obama's push for a new trade deal with Asia have a new target: The president's Friday visit to Nike.

"With less than 1% of its more than 1 million production jobs located in the United States, Nike perfectly depicts America's lost-jobs, low-wage future under the Trans-Pacific Partnership," said Elizabeth Swager, director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign.

Swager's group and others plan to protest Obama's appearance Friday at the Nike campus in Beaverton, Ore.

While Nike has been accused of abetting foreign sweat shops, officials say the company has worked to improve the conditions of workers both at home and aboard.

A White House statement says Obama is making the visit "to discuss how workers will benefit from progressive, high-standards trade agreements that would open up new markets and support high-quality jobs both for Oregon small businesses and large companies like Nike."

The trip comes as Obama promotes the Trans-Pacific Partnership with Asian nations. He is also asking the Congress for trade promotion authority, which would allow the administration to send a final agreement to lawmakers for an up-or-down vote, without amendments.

The proposed free trade deal with Asia will include "high-standards to bring greater opportunity to American businesses, level the playing field for American workers, protect the environment, and raise human rights and labor standards around the world," the White House says.

The critics aren't convinced, saying free trade deals encourage businesses to move jobs to countries with cheaper labor and lower environmental standards.

Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, said President George W. Bush also included labor provisions in his trade deals, but they have not worked.

"Years later, those terms have not improved conditions in the countries where they apply," she said. "Further, the (Obama) trade agreement will exacerbate income inequality and incentivize off-shoring."

Reports Reuters <http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-puts-nike-trade-spotlight-155941312.html;_ylt=AwrC2Q7FZUtVtWUAVATQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBybGY3bmpvBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg-->:

"In choosing the company's Oregon headquarters as the backdrop for his message, Obama risks reminding people of global trade's downside just when he needs to convince nervous Democrats to back the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a key plank of the administration's strategic pivot to Asia.

"But appearing at Nike also allows Obama to talk about how things have changed from previous trade deals, and to associate his TPP with a company that says it has learned from the past mistakes of globalization."
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