[Vision2020] When Will "FREE" TRADERS be held accountable?

[Tim Lohrmann]

Visionaries,
   When will the neo-cons and so-called Democrat
Leadership Council types be held accountable for the
colossal failure of what they call FREE TRADE?
  
    They(the leaders of the 2 major parties) keep up
the big lie that this exportation of jobs is good for
our economy. It seems to be like a religion for
everyone that is given any serious coverage by the
mainstream press.

   Notice especially towards the bottom of this
article that the country contributing the most to our
trade deficit is of course China. The same country
that not only openly boasts of having missiles capable
of hitting our west coast cities, and continues to
occupy and oppress Tibet but was the beneficiary of
top-secret missile technology that was passed on in
return for campaign contributions under Clinton. 
  And speaking of Clinton, the NAFTA godfather, where
are his comments about the deficits with the original
NAFTA partners? ($4.09 Billion deficit with Canada,
and the $3.42 Trillion yep that's trillion with a T!)
    
   The Free Trade agreements were sold on the racist
notion that we could send the "grunt-work" jobs
overseas for the lessers while we here in the good ole
USA could all be software engineers. Unfortunately,
that approach left out reality. The reality that the
rest of the world is as good or better than Americans
in the high tech sector. And not only that they'll do
that work at a tenth of the wages. 
  Let's face it, the Free Traders have failed. The
only winners have been the new "International"
coporations. "International" in this context is easy
to define. It means not loyal. Not loyal either to the
country that gave them their start or to the people
that got them to where they are today. 
   TL


  
> >  U.S. Trade Deficit Climbs in May
> >  
> >  By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
> >  AP Economics Writer
     Friday, July 11, 2003

> >   America's trade deficit, on track to set an
> > all-time high this year, edged up slightly to
> $41.84
> > billion in May as imports of foreign cars,
> > televisions and business equipment all showed big
> > gains.
> >  
> >  
> >  The Commerce Department reported Friday that the
> > May imbalance rose by 0.5 percent from the April
> > deficit of $41.65 billion even though U.S. exports
> > posted their best gain since January with
> shipments
> > of American-made autos and auto parts, computer
> > chips and industrial machinery all showing gains.
> >  
> >  
> >  For the first five months of this year, the U.S.
> > trade deficit is running at an annual rate of $492
> > billion, well above last year's record high of
> $418
> > billion.
> >  
> >  
> >  Critics point to the soaring deficit as evidence
> > that the Bush administration is pursuing a failed
> > trade strategy that has furthered the loss of
> > millions of American manufacturing jobs as U.S.
> > companies have closed their American factories and
> > moved production overseas to take advantage of
> > cheaper labor.
> >  
> >  
> >  The administration, however, insists that the
> > rising trade deficit reflects bigger economic
> > forces, namely the fact that the U.S. economy,
> while
> > mired in an anemic economic recovery, is still
> > growing faster than the rest of the world.
> >  
> >  
> >  Administration officials have been urging
> Japanese
> > and European authorities to do more to boost their
> > growth rates and provide stronger markets for
> > American goods.
> >  
> >  
> >  Also this spring, the administration made a
> subtle
> > shift in its policy regarding the dollar,
> signaling
> > that it did not plan to intervene in currency
> > markets to stem the greenback's slide, a position
> > American manufacturers had been urging the
> > administration to take for years.
> >  
> >  
> >  U.S. companies have complained that an overvalued
> > dollar was pricing their products out of overseas
> > markets and making imported goods cheaper and more
> > attractive for U.S. companies.
> >  
> >  
> >  The dollar's decline this year did appear to be
> > boosting demand for American exports, which rose
> to
> > $82.05 billion in May, a 0.9 percent rise which
> was
> > the strongest monthly increase in percentage terms
> > since January.
> >  
> >  
> >  The increase reflected gains of $117 million in
> > sales of autos and auto parts, which rose to $6.76
> > billion in May. Other products showing increases
> in
> > May were exports of industrial machinery, up $101
> > million; computer accessories, up $96 million, and
> > computer chips, up $50 million.
> >  
> >  
> >  These gains offset declines of $9 million in
> > exports of farm products, which fell to $4.29
> > billion, reflecting a big drop of $177 million in
> > shipments of soybeans, which offset gains in
> exports
> > of corn, meat and poultry and fruit.
> >  
> >  
> >  Imports were also up in May, rising by 0.7
> percent
> > to $123.89 billion. That increase reflected a 4.7
> > percent rise in imports of foreign autos and auto
> > parts, which increased to $17.67 billion during
> the
> > month. Imports of business equipment were up by
> $75
> > million while shipments of televisions and video
> > recorders climbed by $69 million.
> >  
> >  
> >  Imports of foreign petroleum dropped by 8.3
> percent in May to $10.34 billion with the
improvement reflecting a decline in crude oil prices
to an average of $24.11 per barrel, down from $26.02
in April and a high this year of $30.46 set in
February. However, the volume of crude oil
> imported set a monthly record of 320.5 million
barrels as the United States increased its dependence
on foreign oil supplies.
> >  
> >  
> >  By country, the United States recorded its
> largest deficit with China, an imbalance of $9.86
billion,an increase of 4.3 percent from the April
level.
> The deficit with Japan shrank a sharp 24.8 percent
to$4.49 billion in May, the smallest imbalance since
 January 1998.
> >  
> >  The deficit with Canada rose 7.2 percent to $4.09
> > billion in May while the deficit with Mexico,
> > America's other partner in the North American Free
> > Trade Agreement, was up 2.3 percent to $3.42
> > trillion.


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