Multinationals always get what they want

Unfortunately, workers don't get what they need.

Lobbyists for multinationals are predicting Congress will approve three bad trade deals by July: with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.

The South Korea trade deal will cost U.S. jobs and increase the deficit. The Colombia trade del will do the same, while encouraging more murders of more trade unionists. The Panama trade deal will further encourage coporations to avoid paying taxes as Panama is one of the world's worst tax havens.

Public Citizens' Lori Wallach had a good take on the deals: "damaging, heartbreaking, infuriating and disgusting."

Economic Populist reminds us that multinational corporations have no loyalty to America. Wish our dear leaders would remember that.

Why the U.S. would be crazy to sign a trade deal with Panama

Panama workers protest laws weakening their rights.

We're hearing that a job-killing trade deal with Panama might be sent to Congress later this year.

There are so many reasons to oppose this deal that it's hard to know where to start. But here's a try:

Panama is a great example of how trade deals in Latin America create political instability. President Martinelli (a free-trading supermarket billionaire) used anti-democratic methods to weaken unions that oppose the trade deal with Panama. Reports truthout (via Buzzflash)

Panama's combative labor unions would be unlikely to simply roll over and accept the looming corporate-style U.S.-Panama free trade agreement.

Martinelli last summer forced through a law that severely eroded labor protections and almost eliminated the right to assemble. It legalized the hiring of strikebreakers and granted police immunity for shooting striking workers. Panama's workers staged a general strike to protest the new law. As many as 11 protesters were killed. In the end, the law was rolled back in a great victory for workers.

There are plenty of other reasons to oppose a trade deal with Panama. It would reward a country that's been on every major list of tax havens and whose banks have repeatedly been accused of money laundering. The proposed deal would continue to allow Panama to protect money launderers and tax cheats. It would encourage U.S. companies to move to Panama, and it would give Panama-based subsidiaries of U.S. banks greater rights within the United States than the Constitution provides U.S. citizens.

Martinelli has also shown an indifference to following his own laws. It was recently revealed in diplomatic cables that the U.S. government believed Martinelli "may be willing to set aside the rule of law in order to achieve his political and developmental goals." He had tried to bully the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to wiretap his political rivals who oppose this trade deal.

As Global Trade Watch points out,

Since President Martinelli apparently can't be bothered to follow the laws of his own country, how can his government be trusted to follow an international agreement and help the U.S. government ferret out tax dodgers?

Ruh-roh

President Obama says he'll push for trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama, the New York Times reports.

Rob Scott at the Economic Policy Institute just posted his report that shows a trade deal with South Korea will

... increase the U.S. trade deficit with Korea by about $16.7 billion,
and displace about 159,000 American jobs within the first seven years after it takes effect.

Global Trade Watch points out that Panama

is one of the world's top venues for tax evasion and money laundering

and that the proposed trade deal includes

...no special requirements that take into consideration, much less try to counter, Panama's banking secrecy rules, lax financial service regulations or designation as a venue for money laundering and tax evasion. In fact, if the Panama FTA were adopted, it would make these matters of bipartisan concern worse.

The U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project reminds us that Colombia kills more trade unionists than all other countries in the world combined.

Through April 2010, more than 2,700 trade unionists have been assassinated in the last two decades. Virtually no one is prosecuted or convicted for these murders, with approximately a 96% impunity rate.