Tancredo Blasts CAFTA's Back Door Immigration Provisions

[arcos]

Tancredo Blasts CAFTA's Back Door Immigration Provisions - Foreigners to Side-Step Immigration Laws

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman, outlining the lawmaker's serious concerns with the nearly 1,000 page-long Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

"This agreement opens America's borders to a lot more than sugar and bananas," said Tancredo, "This agreement, as drafted, will effectively give people from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic a de facto right to work in the United States."

<snip>

Despite continued insistence by CAFTA's supporters that the deal does not include immigration provisions, the plain language of the agreement suggests otherwise.

Tancredo pointed to Chapter 11 of the agreement, which stipulates that, "Cross-border trade in services or cross-border supply of services means the supply of a service...by a national of a party in the territory of another party." The agreement goes on to say that the U.S. must ensure that, "measures relating to qualification requirements and procedures, technical standards and licensing requirements do not constitute unnecessary barriers to trade in services," and are "not in themselves a restriction on the supply of the service."

<snip>

http://www.phxnews.com/fullstory.php?article=23047

[mom cat]

1. Maybe it will take a few assholes like this to defeat CAFTA

[meganmonkey]

3. ...

:rofl:

we can only hope...

[Robert Oak]

2. WTO, GATS mode 4

This is true and now India has petitioned the WTO for 195k H-1B Worker
VISAs even though unemployment in high tech for Americans is at an all time high.

There is a growing movement to move immigration laws from nation-states and into the WTO.

What does this mean? It means that multinational corporations can
by-pass national workers rights laws, protections and move people
around the globe.

It means that any national immigration policy can be seen as a "barrier to trade" but in this case, the "item" being "traded" is people.

Now, I know we're going to get a series of "white supremacist, racist"
posts on here and Tancredo is a lightning rod for this sort of reaction...

but fellow liberals...you MUST, I repeat MUST get over yourselves
on the "white supremacist racist" thing and realize what is really going on...

this is a massive effort on behalf of multinational corporations
to erode worker rights, circumvent labor laws and depress wages...
on a global scale!

It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with your PPI
(your value in terms of wages and how desperate you are for a job).

By increasing demand and being able to freely manipulate labor markets
cross national borders, we are looking at the creation of a new slave economy on a global scale.

[Maple]

4. Welcome to the 21st century.

One world, one race, no borders

[Robert Oak]

12. please realize

one world, two classes, the elite and the slaves.

This is not the way to equality if that is your goal...it is the way
to remove any raising up of any group on a global scale.

People do not realize but their sense of justice and caring is
precisely the emotion that is being manipulated to allow these
sorts of moves to pass.

This WILL NOT reduce poverty, WILL NOT raise up the 3rd world
and WILL NOT bring equality unless you wish the entire globe to be
repressed and in workers class identical to pre 1923.

Unfortunately those who do not understand labor economics or
slave economics are being manipulated.

[TahitiNut]

5. Treating human labor ("services") as a commodity is against US law.

Not that that's stopped the modern slave-traders.

[Maple]

7. So don't do it

[Miss Chybil]

6. I agree with you 100%, but

I often wonder how it would serve corporations to have a market in which the majority of people could not afford their goods, or services. Are they cutting off their noses to spite their face?

[Maple]

8. There are

6 billion customers in the world

[Miss Chybil]

13. I guess it's just hard to get my head around a number like that.

I always say all these free trade agreements are nothing more than a way to drive down the cost of labor, as is illegal immigration. It's just sometimes I wonder what they are going to do when the succeed into turning us all into serfs.

[Robert Oak]

14. yes they are cutting off their noses

US multinational corporations especially think in terms of quarterly
profits.

There is an absurd message by Harvard Business School (what idiot
graduated from there?) that says if one worries about the short
term business cycle, the long term will take care of itself.

This is opposite of what the Japanese as well as the Chinese think...they consider 10 years out in terms of strategy.

What they are manipulating is short term markets. There still is enough of a "consumer class" in the 1st world to extract profits with the current economic snapshot.

But, your comment "cutting off their noses" is quite accurate. There
are many world leading economists pointing out economic Apocalypse and the metrics of the US middle class/economy really bare this out..
twin record deficits on trade and budget and the middle class debt
at an all time high...there are some papers showing if the housing
bubble collapses it will have repercussions much greater than the elements which caused the Great Depression.

But, the "mythical" 3rd world consumer to replace Americans has not materialized and one of the main reasons is the slave wages in 3rd world countries..
Textile workers in Bangladesh for example, cannot even afford beans and rice, never mind a pair of sneakers that they make for 12 hours a day.

In terms of worker safety it's an absolute sham. There was a major fire in Thailand much worst than the Triangle fire in NY which created a huge workers rights movement in response..
not a damn thing happened...

the reason? US multinationals simply threaten to pull out of that nation and get a cheaper nation.

The US multinationals play nation against nation for jobs so no
one individual nation will go against them in terms of slave labor
for fear of losing that industry.

[Zorra]

10. Yeh, you got it.

"this is a massive effort on behalf of multinational corporations
to erode worker rights, circumvent labor laws and depress wages...
on a global scale!"

"we are looking at the creation of a new slave economy on a global scale."

And amen to this:

"but fellow liberals...you MUST, I repeat MUST get over yourselves
on the "white supremacist racist" thing and realize what is really going on..."

Folks, this is pretty much the big picture:

The global power of the financial centers is so great, that they can afford not to worry about the political tendency of those who hold power in a nation, if the economic program (in other words, the role that nation has in the global economic megaprogram) remains unaltered. The financial disciplines impose themselves upon the different colors of the world political spectrum in regards to the government of any nation. The great world power can tolerate a leftist government in any part of the world, as long as the government does not take measures that go against the needs of the world financial centers. But in no way will it tolerate that an alternative economic, political and social organization consolidate. For the megapolitics, the national politics are dwarfed and submit to the dict ates of the financial centers. It will be this way until the dwarfs rebel . .

http://www.cambridgeaction.net/node/view/17

DU Economic Activism Forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=255

[jody]

9. This opens the door to professionals like nurses, teachers, etc. n/t

[Robert Oak]

11. you need to add

at 20-70% lower wages and no job security.

That is the issue and that is the point.

[sadiesworld]

15. kick

[denverbill]

16. Chinese workers are building oil rigs in Colorado.

God only knows how much they are being paid, but you can fucking bet it ain't 1/4 what American oil workers make.

No jobs is safe in America when the Republicans/DLC'ers are in charge.