Submitted by: Donald Hank
A few comments are in order for those who may think that "free" trade agreements are at least good for the Third World:
I am following "free" trade agreement stories on Japanese TV and in the newspapers in Panama.
Over a year ago, Panama signed a free trade agreement with the EU and within a few days, fish and seafood prices doubled.
At the same time, new legislation was introduced to ban trotline fishing. Now trotline fishing is lower-yield than trawling. Yet the laws are designed to support ONLY the rich big business fishermen. Another aspect of this agreement was that Panamanian fishermen were told they could only fish in certain areas. That edict came directly from the EU. It was part of the FTA.
Last month, around the time of the FTA with the US, food prices rose by over 7%.
The only people benefitting from the FTA here are, again, the biggest agri-businesses who can afford to cut through the red tape enough to trade with Big Brother from the north.
Now, as for Japan, I have been seeing large demonstrations of ag coops:
They will clearly be hurt once the subsidies stop and cheap rice comes in under the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership).
Don Hank
How the U.S. Will Become a 3rd World Country (Part 1)
by Ron Hera
Excerpt:
Unemployment and Lack of Economic Opportunity
Unemployment, which is a deep, structural problem in the U.S., is a fundamental challenge to economic opportunity. The U.S. labor market is in a long-term downward trend linked to globalization, i.e., offshoring of manufacturing, outsourcing of jobs and deindustrialization.
