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Free Trade Deals Include Free Trade of Workers - Under the classical concept of free trade, nations are able to sell resources, manufactured goods, and services across international borders, without being subject to tariffs. The theory is widely embraced as one that, in the long run, improves the standards of living for people all over the world. Quietly, however, the Bush Administration is expanding the concept of free trade to include free access by foreigners to U.S. jobs. The Bush model can be seen in two recently concluded trade agreements with Singapore and Chile, negotiated under the trade promotion authority granted to him by Congress last August. These pacts will not only eliminate tariffs and other barriers for goods and services, they also contain provisions that will allow professional and technical workers in those countries to freely enter the U.S. for extended periods of time. About a dozen similar deals are currently being negotiated with countries in Africa, Central America and Australia. Provisions of the Singapore and Chile agreements will allow multinational corporations to “transfer” unlimited numbers of overseas workers to jobs in the U.S. Moreover, the language of these deals is so loosely written that companies will even be free to subcontract these workers to other employers after they arrive in this country. The language of the Singapore Free Trade Agreement, signed by President Bush on May 6, states that, ″A party shall not: (a) as a condition for temporary entry [of intra-company transferees] require labor certification tests or other procedures of similar effect; or (b) impose or maintain any numerical restriction relating to temporary entry.″ In other words, companies will have license to move workers at will, irrespective of any impact it might have on American workers. Nor are the companies required to pay these foreign transferees the prevailing U.S. wage or even the U.S. minimum wage. Even before these trade agreements were formalized, the use of intra-company transfer visas, known as L-1s, has been increasing steadily. Between 1999 and 2002, the number of L-1 visas increased by 40 percent, even as the U.S. economy cooled and unemployment surged. It is becoming increasingly clear that the president’s vision of the global economy in the 21st century includes not only cheaper goods and services for American consumers, but cheaper foreign workers for American employers. In addition to the trade agreements, the Administration is actively promoting expanded guest worker programs for both skilled and unskilled labor. Free trade has produced many benefits for Americans and has been economically beneficial to people all around the world. But we must also guard against free trade fundamentalism that makes free trade an end in itself. It is often difficult to tell these days if economies exist to serve the needs of people, or the other way around. Though this concern has been widely discredited by fringe protesters who smash the windows of McDonald’s restaurants and engage in violent demonstrations every time the World Trade Organization holds a meeting, they do have some legitimate gripes. Trade policies that include provisions for unfettered movement of people across international borders for the purpose of providing ever-cheaper labor lead us further down the path toward standing the relationship between people and economics on its head. At some point, the pursuit of cheaper products and cheaper workers becomes a race to the bottom, which in the long run will cripple middle class American families and destroy access to the American dream for millions of U.S. workers. We have always understood and accepted the fact that free trade comes at a cost to some American workers, as some jobs are lost to foreign competitors. However, there has always been the implicit understanding that after some period of adjustment, the economic benefits of free trade would result in other industries picking up the slack and providing new opportunities for those who were displaced. Those implicit understandings are now being replaced by explicit trade agreements that place most jobs in America up for grabs. Far from improving the quality of life for middle class Americans, if the Singapore and Chile prototypes are extended to countries around the globe, it will eventually destroy the American middle class. After having endured the economic transitions of the 1970s and 1980s that sent many industrial jobs abroad, American workers have shown themselves to be resilient, resourceful and the most productive workers in the world. Their jobs should not be sacrificed to trade agreements that allow free trade fundamentalists to bid down their labor at home. |
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