Free Trade treaties undermine Buy American

The "fast track" legislation introduced in Congress last week aims to get 2 new Free Trade treaties through Congress: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).  These treaties would extend our country's NAFTA trade model to Asia, the rest of Latin America, and the European Union.

The Jan 2014 report "NAFTA at 20" by Ben Beach of Public Citizen documents the loss of 60,000 US factories since NAFTA was implemented 20 years ago, and attributes the net loss of over 1 Million US jobs to NAFTA alone.  In the 21st century our country has already lost 5.5 Million manufacturing jobs to the Free Trade policies codified in around a dozen FTA's on the NAFTA model.  The TPP and the TTIP would be a huge catastrophe to America's economy by further exporting our manufacturing capacity, jobs and wages, and tax base.

There are many problems with these FTAs that I have detailed in past articles here on Patch.  But one I want to focus on today is how our existing FTAs already make "Buy American" policies in government procurement and consumer labeling nearly impossible.

Download the pdf linked above to read the document "Hyundai Solar Modules Qualify for BUY AMERICAN."  It is a document sent to me by a solar equipment wholesaler.  The absurdity should be obvious in this quote from that document:

"Hyundai solar modules are manufactured in the Republic of Korea, and qualify as 'WTO-Government procurement Trade Agreement country end products' under the 'Trade Agreement Act' clause of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)."

Read the whole thing for the twisted reasoning that is based on the Free Trade laws and treaties passed by the US Congress.

Isn't it time we demand the Congress represent the people of the USA rather than the globalized corporations funding the election campaigns of both parties?