gracchusdixit

These pages are usually dedicated to subjects like politics or religion, which offend sensibilities and provoke heated debate.  Which is why I write about them in the first place.  However, the time has come to discuss a subject that may be less spicy but is far more significant—trade agreements.  That’s right: trade agreements.

If the mere thought causes you to hold back a big yawn of anticipatory boredom, I can’t blame you.  It would be infinitely more amusing to mock the dysfunctional antics of our political parties or the pratfalls of their sometimes laughable Presidential candidates. But the real importance of such things is trivial in comparison with trade agreements, which have a direct, tangible, and lasting impact on the daily lives and future prospects of billions of people around the world.  Next to all that, a question like who will become the next President of the United States is a quaint historical footnote.

And right now, there’s a whopper of a deal on the table.  It is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, or TTP, and it will set the terms of trade among eleven nations around the Pacific Rim.  Although the terms are not yet known (more about that in a moment), it is safe to say that the TTP will determine the fate of millions of jobs, thousands of businesses, and entire industries on at least four continents.

TTP is merely the latest in a long series of so-called “free trade” agreements in which we and other nations have participated.  Most have breezed through the approval process with little controversy or public notice.  TTP, on the other hand, is causing a stink.  Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is the one raising the stink, asking fundamental questions about the consequences of TTP and calling for a public debate before its ratification.  Her effrontery sparked President Obama to bristle:  “I love Elizabeth, but she’s just wrong on this.”  Coming from Mr. Cool himself, that’s a rare reprimand, especially when it’s aimed at one of his most steadfast supporters.

The problem, of course, is that Senator Warren isn’t just any old bottle and brick thrower.  Apart from her status as the Joan of Arc of progressive Democrats, she is a renowned legal scholar and one of the country’s foremost experts on commercial law.  Elizabeth Warren, in other words, knows a thing or two about business, economics, and, yes, trade agreements.  The red flags she is raising cannot therefore be brushed aside.

And what are those red flags?

The first is that so-called “free trade” agreements rarely deliver on their promises.  The promises are always the same.  “Free trade,” the fairy tale goes, makes life better for everyone by opening up markets, stimulating economic activity, and creating jobs.  Indeed, the very phrase, “free trade,” is a public relations euphemism designed to sound enticing.  What could possibly be wrong with “free trade”?

The answer, unfortunately, is: quite a lot.  While there is nearly universal consensus among our political and financial elites that free trade is a good thing, there is remarkably little evidence to support the fairy tale.  On the contrary, in the decades since we’ve been signing these deals, countless jobs have been shipped overseas, entire manufacturing industries have disappeared, and the American and European middle classes that once depended on those jobs and industries have shriveled.

The second red flag is the way TTP is being negotiated, which is exactly the way all such deals have been negotiated—in secret.  Members of Congress are permitted to see the sausage being made, but they are forbidden, by law, from discussing the ingredients.  We are told that the details are too complex to be understood by ordinary mortals until the terms are finalized, that involvement by amateurs—a.k.a., ordinary citizens—would merely gum up the works.  In other words, the sausage-makers think we’re too dumb to know what’s good for us.

Which brings us to the final red flag—the sausage-makers themselves.  The overwhelming majority of those negotiating these agreements are corporate executives, members of their staffs, and their richly compensated lobbyists.  These people aren’t negotiating “free trade” in the nation’s interest; they’re negotiating deals that will serve their own commercial interests.

The most flagrant demonstration of this reality appears in another mega-deal still being negotiated between the United States and the European Union.  This one is called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP.  Among its many unsavory ingredients is a provision allowing corporations to sue nations for imposing regulations, taxes or tariffs that might diminish their profits.  In other words, if TTIP goes through, national sovereignty will take a back seat to commerce.

For more than a hundred years, corporate capitalism has been pursuing the same agenda.  Corporations expect us to bail them out when they’re in trouble.  They expect to be protected by our laws and, if push comes to shove, by our military power.  But they expect to give nothing in return.  Commerce comes before country, profit before patriotism.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is raising red flags that needed to be raised long ago.  It’s time to rally round and join her on the barricades.