I'm damn tired of people who claim to be the left

[ehrnst]

391. Let's unpack that.

That sounds a lot like the "open borders are letting in terrorists!" accusations of the far right when even a few immigrants are let in.

Without some free trade, their can be no "fair trade." How do we monitor and require that businesses in those countries provide humane, good working conditions, and good environmental protections without giving those businesses a market here? You must put something on the table, in order to get those those things in return. Trade agreements are a powerful negotiating tool.

And many American jobs are now linked to trade agreements, including NAFTA. Canceling NAFTA will have a huge negative impact on the auto industry, and cost many jobs. So It's not black or white, FREE TRADE vs AMERICAN JOBS. Anyone who tells you that slaying the "trade agreement dragon" won't create other dragons is lying to you.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/28/cats-cradle-scrapping-nafta-will-wreak-havoc-on-auto-industry-supply-chains/

There is no stopping globalization, any more than one can stop the stream of refugees. You have to be in the driver's seat, or you will be run over. Isolationism in trade doesn't work any more than a wall along the Texas border will.

There is middle ground between isolationism and onerous trade agreements - and if we are not out in front of trade, at the table setting the terms, our workers and our planet will suffer at the hands of other countries at the table who don't have environmental regulations or human rights priorities.

Robert Reich opposes TPP, but still stands by NAFTA, which was implemented when he was Secretary of Labor, and believes that we can learn from NAFTA to craft more effective trade agreements:

"If you put labor and environmental standards into our trade agreements, it’s not a race to the bottom. If you have an environmental standard and a labor standard that, for example, bars all slave labor, guarantees the right to organize, maintains kind of minimum labor standards throughout the world, you are setting a floor for all nations. It’s not protectionism. This is a way of actually getting everybody up rather than having the bar continue to trend downward. We tried to do this in NAFTA, and, unfortunately, we couldn’t get the Mexican government support. We tried to have a labor and environmental side agreement. I think it would have been a much better agreement had we had that."

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/3/30/1507138/-Robert-Reich-On-NAFTA-I-Don-t-Think-It-Was-A-Mistake

But international trade isn't the only dragon when it comes to American jobs.

You are aware that factory jobs done by automation are not coming back, don't you? Any more that the switchboard operators, elevator operators, FotoMats, and coal mining jobs are. Drivers will be next to go the way of the blacksmith. Rail against automation all you like, but the best use of our energy and time is to prepare for it. Same with globalization. Buying drugs from Canada is one product of globalization. There are no borders on the internet, and you can't unring that bell.

Again - I'm not defending or villifying any specific trade agreements, as I am not an economist, and have an awareness of how much I don't know. I just don't buy the into the established tribal dogma that any free trade whatsoever is bad for American workers or workers in developing nations - and indicates corruption on the part of those who support a trade deal.

I own a business, and rely on international (fair trade certified) products. Because I purchase these fair trade elements for my products, women in developing countries, India, Ghana, Morroco and Bangladesh are enabled to make a living wage. I purchase other elements from the United states when they are available - and even then, it's hard to find much that is manufactured here from sellers.

Thinking about trade simplistically isn't going to get us anywhere and could hurt us.