[CTC] Trump promises better trade deals. He should also make them more democratic.

Wed Feb 8 06:33:45 PST 2017

http://bangordailynews.com/2017/02/07/opinion/contributors/trump-promises-better-trade-deals-he-should-also-make-them-more-democratic/ <http://bangordailynews.com/2017/02/07/opinion/contributors/trump-promises-better-trade-deals-he-should-also-make-them-more-democratic/>
Trump promises better trade deals. He should also make them more democratic.

George Danby | BDN
By Matthew Beck, Special to the BDN
Posted Feb. 07, 2017, at 8:38 a.m.
Donald Trump has formally withdrawn the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But the fact is the TPP was dead in the water well before Trump set foot in the Oval Office. He didn’t kill it. Millions of Americans, including thousands of Mainers, did by holding our elected representatives accountable.

Now advocates of fair trade policies are anxiously waiting to see whether President Trump will embrace transparency during future trade negotiations and allow many groups to participate that have been largely shut out of the process under previous administrations.

Trump’s official withdrawal <https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/23/presidential-memorandum-regarding-withdrawal-united-states-trans-pacific&sa=D&ust=1486478183221000&usg=AFQjCNGcRN-VgNcM-UlP_r-109cVgEUaoQ> from the free trade agreement was another staged victory lap for our 45th president. The TPP could have been approved by a simple majority vote in Congress after Michael Froman, the chief U.S. trade representative under President Barack Obama, signed it last February <https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pacific-trade-agreement-signed-20160204-story.html&sa=D&ust=1486478183222000&usg=AFQjCNH-cJDY60AT-QmjxeIepzwcGiLyRQ>, but there was never enough support to bring it to a vote <https://www.google.com/url?q=http://bangordailynews.com/2016/08/25/politics/no-senate-vote-on-obamas-tpp-deal-this-year-mcconnell-says/&sa=D&ust=1486478183223000&usg=AFQjCNEsB8W1f45BVdiFheV0FRFUQ0ISMw>.

Throughout the TPP’s secret negotiations, there were 500 corporate advisers on hand, but the people were largely shut out of the process. A broad coalition of environmental, family farm, labor, labor, social justice and other organizations worked hard to stop it. Countless letters, phone calls, emails and meetings with members of Congress turned TPP into the “Toxic-Pacific Partnership.” So toxic, in fact, that Trump <https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36368759&sa=D&ust=1486478183224000&usg=AFQjCNFKoF9LeQM7r60lBAS1ioBFVydpKw> and Hillary Clinton <https://www.google.com/url?q=http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/12/hillary-clinton-denounces-nafta-and-tpp-in-awkward-policy-reversal/&sa=D&ust=1486478183225000&usg=AFQjCNHQ8-iYinPmWrfBX3shq8B3Q-MZ9g> ran on platforms opposing it.

Columnist Gwynne Dyer recently suggested that for Obama and many U.S. officials the deal was really about our strategic rivalry with China <https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bangordailynews.com/2017/01/30/opinion/contributors/killing-tpp-is-the-best-thing-trump-could-have-done-for-china/&sa=D&ust=1486478183226000&usg=AFQjCNHhCuC1RJYGry5LlJ3v7EpnuzsX5Q>. Maybe so, but for most of us it was about the devastating effects these unfair trade deals can have on the environment, food safety, workers, internet freedom, access to medicine and countless other areas that touch our everyday lives.

In reality, much of the TPP had very little to do with trade. Most of its chapters were designed to shift the balance of power away from people and their governments and over to multinational corporations. Perhaps the most onerous parts of the TPP had to do with the Investor State Dispute Settlement <https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/10/06/the-tpp-has-a-provision-many-will-love-to-hate-isds-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter/?utm_term%3D.f19d7614cd0f&sa=D&ust=1486478183227000&usg=AFQjCNESbarYIkdDmBpb9ck0qsMmY_IQHA>provision. This gives corporations rights to damage payments if a law, regulation or rule is found to be in violation of the corporation’s rights under the trade agreement.

The dispute settlement provision circumvents domestic courts and grants new rights to corporations from other countries to sue our government before a tribunal panel of three corporate lawyers, who can award the multinational corporations unlimited sums of American taxpayer money.

Dyer correctly pointed out that automation is responsible for significant job loss <https://www.google.com/url?q=http://conexus.cberdata.org/files/MfgReality.pdf&sa=D&ust=1486478183228000&usg=AFQjCNG1MgM-DJQgkpoTwVulbt_4P9N_bg> in U.S. manufacturing industries, and that will continue regardless of the fate of TPP and other trade deals, a fact that Trump neglected to mention during a campaign in which trade policy played a significant role. Trump’s rhetoric scapegoating foreigners for stealing American jobs is an oversimplification at best and xenophobic at worst.

But the TPP would have incentivized the offshoring of jobs and sped up the race to the bottom for American workers forced to compete with workers in countries such as Vietnam earning just pennies to their dollar. This fact isn’t lost on the hundreds of Maine workers making shoes at New Balance who faced an uncertain future if the TPP was ratified by Congress <https://www.google.com/url?q=http://bangordailynews.com/2016/09/17/the-point/maine-will-benefit-from-increased-trade-under-the-tpp-but-those-gains-are-very-modest/&sa=D&ust=1486478183230000&usg=AFQjCNHRTZV6cF8KIHk41Zz9_DfnZCrlug>.

Now that the TPP is behind us, what comes next?

There’s already talk of replacing the TPP with a series of bilateral trade deals <https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/25/trumps-point-man-on-trade-we-envision-a-more-germany-style-economy.html&sa=D&ust=1486478183231000&usg=AFQjCNFAoXnd0I4vvm0Br38srja0aLS0-g> with countries such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand to avoid strengthening China, according to Peter Navarro, director of Trump’s newly-created National Trade Council. Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, will lead accelerated talks with Mexico and Canada on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement <https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/01/18/commerce-nominee-ross-says-top-priority-is-renegotiating-nafta/?utm_term%3D.aa0303ec98c5&sa=D&ust=1486478183232000&usg=AFQjCNG83-v9SUAc40XAMzj04cdgIgdclA>, the president has said.

The NAFTA renegotiation process and any bilateral deal negotiations must be transparent and participatory — the opposite of the secretive and corporate-dominated talks that produced NAFTA and the TPP. Members of the public must be invited to help craft U.S. positions and comment on draft proposals <https://www.google.com/url?q=http://bangordailynews.com/2015/12/19/the-point/maine-has-had-advocate-in-trade-talks-for-11-years-with-limited-results-2/&sa=D&ust=1486478183233000&usg=AFQjCNE6zErfCm8Wih1M5u4bTQukG0d2tQ> before negotiations. Negotiated texts also must be available to all, with opportunity for comment, after each round of negotiations.

The U.S. must adopt the longstanding demands of consumer, environmental, faith, family farm and labor organizations on what to include and not include in trade agreements. If not, trade deals under Trump could just be more of the same — or they could even be much worse.

Matthew Beck is the vice president of Maine Fair Trade Campaign, a coalition of labor, environmental, human rights, family farm and community groups working together for a new vision on trade policy and economic justice.
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