trade, globalization, agriculture, food, energy http://www.tradereform.org Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:58:06 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.tradereform.org/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png http://www.tradereform.org trade, globalization, agriculture, food, energy http://www.tradereform.org/content/view/2421/50/ Rep. Louise M. SlaughterChairwoman, House Committee on Rules Representing New York’s 28th District PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, March 10, 2010 MEDIA CONTACT Victoria Dillon (202) 225-2888 Slaughter Leads “Positive” Discussion with Trade Rep Kirk WASHINGTON- Reps. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY) and Michael H. Michaud (D-ME) today led a meeting of the House Trade Working Group’s meeting with United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk regarding continuation of U.S participation in talks for a Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement with Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, and Vietnam. The meeting focused on the House Trade Working Group’s key issues, which include labor... Politics - House Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:47:18 +0100 http://www.tradereform.org/content/view/2420/42/ News Release Contact: Michael Stumo, 413-854-2580, cpa@prosperousamerica.org Coalition for a Prosperous America www.prosperousamerica.org March 10, 2010 CPA Colorado Chapter Achieves State Resolution on Trade The Colorado Chapter of the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) helped persuade both Houses of the Colorado State Legislature to adopt a resolution supporting new trade policies to balance America's trade deficit. The resolution called change in policies that have handicapped American manufacturing and agricultural producers and resulted in massive job losses and stagnant wages. We were stunned by the overwhelming support given by our Colorado political leadership for common sense policies to reduce... CPA - News Releases Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:21:53 +0100 http://www.tradereform.org/content/view/2419/34/ By Richard A. McCormack richard@manufacturingnews.com from Manufacturing and Technology News (http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/10/0305/evergreensolar.html) March 5, 2010, Volume 17, Number 4 If you can't beat China and can't get the U.S. government to understand what you're up against, then you may as well join them. That is what Evergreen Solar has decided to do, shifting production of solar fabrication and assembly from its factory in Devens, Mass., to Wuhan, China. Evergreen Solar CEO Rick Feldt went to Washington, D.C., and met with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. He told them Chinese government policies made U.S. production uncompetitive. But the Obama appointees do not... Trade - Outsourcing Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:23:43 +0100 http://www.tradereform.org/content/view/2417/52/ What do folks mean when predicting a W-shaped (or double dip) recession? They mean that our GDP goes down first, which we've already seen. Then our GDP trends back up a bit (though jobs aren't). Then our GDP contracts again (an aftershock recession), presumably before it goes up again (we hope). China's exports, we learned today, jumped 45% last month in relation to Feb. 2009. What does this have to do with the double dip recession? It has everything to do with it. We spent too much and produced too little, thereby producing a massive trade deficit.... Trade - China Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:37:38 +0100 http://www.tradereform.org/content/view/2416/42/ The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), a non-profit membership organization advocating for trade policy reform, announced that it had an extremely successful legislative fly in this week. CPA members from across the country came to the nation's Capitol to lobby congress for a National Trade and Economic Strategy. On March 3rd and 4th, they visited almost 80 Congressional and Senate offices. CPA - News Releases Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:36:36 +0100 http://www.tradereform.org/content/view/2415/52/ by Peter Morici Thursday, the Commerce Department will report the January deficit on international trade in goods and services. Analysts expect it to increase to $41 billion from $40.2 billion in December. My forecast for January is $41.5 billion The trade deficit, along with the credit and housing bubbles, were the principal causes of the Great Recession. Now, a rising trade deficit and continued weakness among regional banks threatens to stifle the emerging recovery and keep unemployment near 10 percent through 2011. Trade - General Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:27:01 +0100 http://www.tradereform.org/content/view/2414/36/ Export mania hit the agriculture sector in the 1970's. The Soviet Union bought a bunch of U.S. grain shipments, and we had an export bump for a few years. That set the course for agriculture policy for years... i.e. exports are our future. But the 1970's was just a bump. Not a trend. U.S. farm programs were designed to be export oriented. Ag economists came up with data proving that future years would show large export growth. But the export trend never materialized. Daryll Ray of the University of Tennessee explains in detail in his column... Agriculture - Ag Trade Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:57:43 +0100 http://www.tradereform.org/content/view/2413/34/ Alan Tonelson and Kevin Kearns of the U.S. Business and Industry Council were published today on the NY Times op-ed page. They explained why productivity gains in a free trade environment produce wage stagnation. The reason is that productivity increases do not exist. Rather, if we offshore most of a supply chain, but do final assembly here, we have fewer U.S. workers that appear to produce the same finished goods. The Dept. of Labor statistics say that those fewer workers produced the same amount of product, when the reality is that foreign workers did most of... Trade - Outsourcing Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:15:12 +0100 http://www.tradereform.org/content/view/2412/34/ Written for the Huffington Post by Senator Fritz Hollings. Washington engages in the grandest fraud on jobs. The people are led to believe that tax cuts stimulate growth and jobs and that borrowing and spending money stimulates jobs. I’ll never forget as Chairman of the Budget Committee briefing Ronald Reagan with Alan Greenspan in the Blair House just before Reagan was sworn in as President. The economy was not good, and I can hear Reagan exclaiming now: “I promised to balance the budget in a year, and there’s no way to do it.” I explained it would take three years, and I... Trade - Outsourcing Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:32:02 +0100 http://www.tradereform.org/content/view/2411/33/ The following article by Doug Palmer appeared at Reuters online here (http://us.mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/AnyArticle/p.rdt?URL=http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6233MS20100304). WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A small group of U.S. lawmakers unveiled legislation on Thursday to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement in the latest sign of congressional disillusionment with free-trade deals. The bill spearheaded by Rep. Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat, would require President Barack Obama to give Mexico and Canada six months notice that the United States will no longer be part of the 16-year-old trade pact. Trade - Trade Agreements Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:02:34 +0100