Obama curbs trade benefits for several African nations

[pampango]

Source: BBC

US President Barack Obama has stopped Madagascar, Guinea and Niger from receiving trade benefits for a year. He said they had failed to make "continual progress" in meeting US requirements for a programme designed to create jobs in Africa.

Mr Obama said that each of the countries "has experienced an undemocratic transfer of power" meaning they did not satisfy the criteria. However, Mauritania was re-instated to the programme.

The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act was set up in 2000 to offer "tangible benefits" for African countries trying to adapt their economies to a free market. In order to take part, countries much show they are working towards, among other things, introducing the rule of law and political pluralism, the elimination of barriers to US trade and investment and efforts to combat corruption.

In Niger, President Mamadou Tandja refused to give up office at the end of his term, while both Guinea and Madagascar have both seen military-backed coups. A coup took place in Mauritania last year, but an election was held this year that, although it returned the coup leader Gen Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz to power, was deemed by observers to be transparent.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8429670.stm

[blue97keet]

1. The same old same old "free trade" agenda again?

This is change we can believe in?

[applegrove]

11. Sounds like they are trying to encourage democracy and a formal economy in

these countries. Nothing wrong with that.

[WriteDown]

2. Huh?

And where is China in that list? Oh, forgot about our massive trade deficit.

[Mr. James]

15. Exactly...

Like our policy towards Cuba and Venezuela, this policy is entirely inconsistent with the precedent set between Nixon and Mao.

[robcon]

3. Free trade is the best hope for mankind.

Free Trade = peace, prosperity and stability.

[Oregone]

8. Yes, a peaceful race to the bottom

[treestar]

12. So the US just deserves to have it better than every other nation on earth?

[Jim Sagle]

19. The American people deserve a government that looks after its interests.

[Flaneur]

14. Fair trade is better.

[pampango]

23. Is AGOA fair trade or free trade? It does tie trade benefits to factors like civilian rule,

the rule of law and political pluralism and efforts to combat corruption. The organization does not just reduce or eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers regardless of how the member country is governed.

[Elwood P Dowd]

16. I see the usual "race to the bottom slave wage worshipers" are here

to defend agreements that are "free trade" in name only. The good news is that there are less than a dozen of these worshipers left on DU. The rest of us have awakened to the fact that these so called "free trade" agreements are nothing more than investment/outsourcing scams designed to enrich a few multinational CEOs and wealthy investors at the expense of workers.

[Jim Sagle]

18. DLC drivel!

[TheWatcher]

20. Have you been reading 1984 and doing Jim Beam Shots again?

I told you that could cause trouble.

[w4rma]

25. Bullshit. (nt)

[Bluenorthwest]

4. But I suppose he sent Uganda a dozen roses and a thank you

card.

[pampango]

5. Why Uganda? Did they have a military coup? Or is this corruption or trade related?

From the AGOA website:

http://www.agoa.gov/eligibility/country_eligibility.html

Countries are eligible for AGOA if the have established or are continually establishing "efforts to combat corruption; policies to reduce poverty, increasing availability of health care and educational opportunities; protection of human rights and worker rights; elimination of certain child labor practices; the rule of law and political pluralism; market-based economies; elimination of barriers to U.S. trade and investment; protection of intellectual property."

Doesn't sound like a bad set of criteria to link US trade benefits to.

[LynneSin]

6. If they start a genocide against men with AIDs - um, no they aren't

Nazy Germany definately made those requirements too

:eyes:

[pampango]

7. Definitely sounds like Uganda should be suspended. I know that some countries have been

and then were readmitted when they changed their policies or actions.

[Lerkfish]

9. how about creating jobs in America?

just a thought.

[Hydra]

10. "We don't need jobs!"

We print money! Just make sure you're a friend of the money printers and you're good. Otherwise, start picking out a pin box or an urn.

[TheWatcher]

21. We don't need jobs.

We just need to feel good, believe in every piece of Propaganda we are told unquestioningly, support the Football team, offer our children up as cannon fodder for the wars, gobble our cheeseburgers, veg out in front of the TV, go to the mall, buy our stuff, and shut up.

That way, permanent prosperity is assured. :patriot:

[treestar]

13. Because trade with other countries would help create jobs in America?

If we did what xenophobes wanted, we'd be North Korea. There's an example of an economy involved with no one else.

[Elwood P Dowd]

17. Free Trade deals have cost us millions in net job losses.

Anyone that tells you otherwise is an outright liar. It's not just the direct job losses when a factory closes or engineering jobs are outsourced. You also have spin off and support jobs lost. Take a factory that employs 5,000 workers and move production out of the country. There are at least another 5,000 jobs lost in the local area due to the domino effect - support jobs are lost, service jobs are lost, tax revenues decline, government jobs are lost, and it goes on and one as the local community declines. Since we started this insane push for never-ending free trade agreements, the gap between the rich and the poor as expanded to 1929 levels!

[TheWatcher]

22. But Facts and truth don't make people feel good. So this well thought out post is likely to be

ignored.

That stuff is scary.

Americans need to feel like they are "winning" something, or are on the "winning" team.

Now, post some Propaganda, and you see heads bobbing up and down like waves in a hurricane!

It's like MAGIC!

Remember, it's not about reality, it's about PERCEPTION.

[pampango]

24. Why haven't "free trade" deals cost Europeans millions in net job losses?

The answer seems to me to be that progressive societies use free trade to make life better for everyone. Progressives in Europe realize that, for example, French tariffs against German products makes no more sense than Ohio tariffs against Michigan products would. They realize that the tariffs do not promote for peace and prosperity (or they would not have created a 27-country free trade zone on the continent); when France and Germany benefit from trading freely with each other they are less likely to invade one another.

Progressives in Europe have not fixated on killing free trade (indeed free trade and open immigration borders are integral parts of what makes the EU the EU). Instead they have concentrated on making their countries as progressive as possible with strong unions, progressive taxation, strong social safety nets, effective national health care or health insurance programs, tight regulation of markets and the financial industry. The result? Prosperous societies without the huge, and growing, gap between rich and poor which indeed is happening in the US.

The growing gap in the US between rich and poor has, indeed, happened since "free trade agreements" came into being. Of course, this gap has also grown rapidly during the era of shredded social safety nets, continuous tax cuts for the rich, weakening of unions and workers' rights, and the dismantling of the regulation of markets and the financial industry. I think that Europe's experience proves that the latter factors are more important to creating a prosperous, more egalitarian society than is getting rid of "free trade".