Free Trade Archives - Page 4 of 12 - Foreign Policy In Focus

The Audacity of Free Trade Agreements

by Laura Carlsen | Jul 14, 2011

Congress could vote any day now to strike a new blow against already-battered U.S. workers and the unemployed. Committees in the House and Senate recently marked up the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). The Obama administration is urging passage of all three relics of the Bush administration before the summer recess. The full-court press on the FTAs represents a reversal for a president elected on a trade reform platform.

Obama in Latin America: Another Missed Opportunity

by Manuel Perez-Rocha | Mar 24, 2011

U.S. President Barack Obama’s most audacious phrase during his trip to Latin America that ended this week was “We are all Americans. Todos somos Americanos.” The phrase seemed designed to provoke rants from the right wing in the United States. But in fact, the right wing and the mainstream media largely overlooked Obama’s tour.

Free Trade’s Winners and Losers in Latin America

by Jess Hunter-Bowman | Mar 19, 2011

Scrapping tariffs can hurt poor farmers, and a deal with Colombia might boost coca production.

Trading with the Enemy

by Jason Hickel | Feb 16, 2011

In 1875, as Europe set its sights on Africa’s vast riches, King Leopold II of Belgium wrote to his ambassador in London, “I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake.” It’s America’s turn now, and it appears that the Obama administration – like Bush before him – is driven by a similarly disturbing vision: a new scramble for Africa.

Free Trade Kills Korean Farmers

by Christine Ahn, Albie Miles | Feb 15, 2011

The Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (Korea FTA), which the Obama administration is promising to send to Congress for ratification in the next weeks, would be the largest international trade deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Korea is the seventh largest U.S. trading partner and the United States is Korea’s third largest trading partner. Commerce between the two countries is estimated at $86 billion annually. The Korea FTA was originally signed in April 2007 by President Bush and later amended by the Obama administration in December 2010. But neither the U.S. Congress nor the South Korean parliament has yet to sign it

Why Egypt Will Not Turn Into Another Iran

by Stephen Zunes | Feb 10, 2011

Some prominent congressional leaders and media pundits, in a cynical effort to mislead the American public into supporting the Egyptian dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak and opposing the popular nonviolent struggle for democracy, have raised the specter of Egypt’s government falling into the hands of radical Islamists who would attack Israel and support international terrorism. To illustrate this frightening scenario, these apologists for authoritarianism try to compare the current pro-democracy uprising against the U.S.-backed Egyptian dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak with the 1978-79 insurrection against the U.S.-backed Iranian dictatorship of Shah Reza Pahlavi.

Peru Trade Deal Unravels

by Tereza Coraggio | Feb 7, 2011

In 2007, a determined Democratic caucus put their collective feet down. They refused to consider any more free trade agreements without a new model, with stronger protections for labor, human rights, and the environment. And so in May, the caucus and its supporters cut a deal with the Bush administration for a new and improved FTA with Peru.

Tax Cuts and Trade: Is Obama Triangulating?

by Mark Engler | Nov 15, 2010

The Bush-negotiated, NAFTA-esque trade agreement with Korea that President Obama is pushing makes him look more Clintonian than ever.

Obama: Blowing It on India?

by Saif Shahin | Oct 22, 2010

President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to India will come just after the mid-term elections in the United States. Whether this timing is coincidental or deliberate, it will decide where Obama stands on several contentious issues between the two countries.

One of these issues is the outsourcing of U.S. jobs to India.

Obama’s About-Face on Trade

by Roger Bybee | Oct 20, 2010

On a frigid Wisconsin day in February 2008, the rapier-like rhetoric of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama slashed away at “free trade” deals that have cost thousands of Wisconsin jobs. He bemoaned the overseas flight of U.S. jobs and connected viscerally with thousands of mostly blue-collar workers at a rally at an imperiled General Motors plant in Janesville, Wisconsin that would ultimately close 10 months later.