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Post by POA on May 6, 2004 18:13:15 GMT -5
This is another big issue that touches on several different other platform areas simoultaneously. Here's a couple of starting points from what I've read:
1) Don't support any further 'free trade' agreements, since they only seem to be good for transferring money to elites in major corporations in both nations/groups of nations involved.
2) Expand and implement programs of debt forgiveness as far as other nations are concerned. This is a good idea because massive levels of debt are part of what keeps maldevelopment of the world (including the United States) going, in effect. As long as most countries are so indebted that bankers who care about nothing but profit dictate the entire terms of their national future to them, there isn't going to be much in the way of positive development for them.
3) Remove 'most-favored' nation trade status to China, since as a policy, this sanctions their atrocious human rights record. (I know, like the US has any room to criticize anyone else on this point, but still....)
4) Pass laws obligating American companies to negotiate with employees and unions before undertaking an outsourcing decision. (This could belong in the section on labor issues).
5) Dismantle the punitive and unaccountable aspects of the WTO.
This would include the following:
'structural reform' proposals that require debtor nations to sell off and privatize basic services and educational systems.
The fact that WTO negotiations/negotiators are trade representatives/ministers who are completely unelected, and that their meetings are conducted essentially in secrecy without any input whatsoever from the people whose lives they are affecting.
6) Stop punishing poorer nations from using tariffs and subsidies to protect their own developing industries and businesses.
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Post by Jay Berner on May 6, 2004 18:48:46 GMT -5
I'm not up to speed on trade, but I can tell you something I've learned from my three months of selling stuff to manufacturers: There're danged few of them, and they're getting sparser. When I say things like "Imagine what it's going to be like in fifteen years," I hear, "Fifteen? How about five?"
It's just way, way worse than anybody imagines. Even when it looks like there are American manufacturers operating, many of them are getting 20% of their inventory from overseas, performing some simple operation to finish them (adding a stamp, clicking two assemblies together, etc) and labeling them "Made In America."
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Post by POA on May 14, 2004 18:39:40 GMT -5
I'm not up to speed on trade, but I can tell you something I've learned from my three months of selling stuff to manufacturers: There're danged few of them, and they're getting sparser. When I say things like "Imagine what it's going to be like in fifteen years," I hear, "Fifteen? How about five?" It's just way, way worse than anybody imagines. Even when it looks like there are American manufacturers operating, many of them are getting 20% of their inventory from overseas, performing some simple operation to finish them (adding a stamp, clicking two assemblies together, etc) and labeling them "Made In America." That's an interesting point. What percentage of the assembly/manufacturing/source materials should be done or made in America in order to be counted as "made in America", since I suspect that statistics are probably skewed by the time of action you've just described. |
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Post by POA on May 14, 2004 20:32:02 GMT -5
This is the tax suggestion that I saw in Counterpunch, as well as in another article that I've read (I'll provide a summary in the environmental party platform development thread).
It was called Tobin taxation, and works as follows: you apply a tax to international currency and stock transactions that's not very large itself, but naturally adds up to a lot for the larger movements. This has several effects at once:
1) It raises a lot of money that could then be spent on programs such as the development and implementation of clean technologies all over the world. (The sample tax provided of .25 cents/dollar would raise $100 billion in a single year).
2) It also discourages financial speculation, which is the cause of a lot of the instability and infrastructure selloffs that have happened.
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Post by spikeb on May 14, 2004 21:45:24 GMT -5
Fair trade is an important issue, and I concur with Dr. Dean and Rep. Kucinich on this issue - we need to raise standards of living via trade deals. We can (and should) require labor laws and living wages from teh countries we do business with.
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Post by karpomrx on May 15, 2004 19:53:28 GMT -5
One of the trade items that gives this economy clout is the massive food production that is generated by the agro industry.
I know that the modern hybrids are nutritional garbage compared to the plants that were being used 50 years ago. The enormous sums given to subsidy programs are not recieved by most farmers in this country.
I read that 1.5 million mexican farmers have left their farms because U.S. agribusiness could sell corn in Mexico below cost, largely as result of subsidy programs given to Archer Daniels, Midlands, et.al.
A definition of fair trade must be worked out, as I am sure that, once again, economic terrorism was not the way these funds were proposed and enacted by congress.
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