Blog #7-Congress Passed Controversial Free Trade Agreement

On Wednesday the US made one of the biggest trade deals since the North America Free Trade Agreement in 1994. The trade deals involved the US, South Korea, Colombia and Panama. Although this seems like a great opportunity to get even more goods into the US for lower costs, there are also many risks involving the economic stress the economy has been in thus far. Labour unions like the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters argued that this agreement might do more damage than already has been done. Jobs in the US will become even more limited due to the outsourcing of duties to complete a job to save money. This agreement will also mean continued abuse of laborers in those countries such as South Korea, Columbia, and Panama. As stated in the article, “The new trade agreements are mere continuations of old policies that have run economies into the ground.” With the current recession that has been prolonged over the past few years the US doesn’t need to do any worse than it already has done at this point. Teamster’s General President Jim Hoffa said, “We desperately need to reverse direction and protect our economy, instead of giving it away to our diplomatic partners.” The statement that Hoffa made is genuinely true due to the fact that we are openhandedly giving away jobs that could be created in the US. Instead of putting more money in our own economy all the US is doing is giving money away to other economies all to save money on goods that will be sold to our citizens at a reduced rate. Since the North American Free Trade Act 5 billion jobs have been lost, and with this new agreement we can only hope that there will not be a similar reaction.

Trade, loss of jobs, and deflation all play a huge role in how economies around the world are dictated. With increased free trade to South Korea, Columbia, and Panama the US will only decrease the amount of jobs that are here in America. Trade sanctions with China only brought decreased jobs and lower prices of goods. Trade agreements among other countries with similar policies as China we can only hope that the economy doesn’t plummet into an even deeper hole than its already in. Socially this agreement will affect where US citizens spend their money, how much of an increased standard of living the citizens in Panama, Columbia, and South Korea will have, and how many jobs are gained and lost in each country. Other countries around the world may feel the impacts of this agreement because if the US is trading with these three countries more so than other countries ,there will be a decreased number of exports going out of these countries and a decreased amount of money going into these different economies. A decreased amount of money going into these economies will affect the citizens and where they spend their money. Money is the driving force for everything in the world so if one country feels the affects of decreased profit it will in turn affect other countries because each country is globally connected to one another. There are huge risks involved with this agreement made between the US, South Korea, Columbia, and Panama but with the US making decisions that have previously failed in the past, we can’t expect a positive outcome from this major decision that has been made.

Link to Article: http://www.globalissues.org/news/2011/10/13/11520