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- From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
- Subject: NAFTA COULD COST 150,000 JOBS LABOR SECRETARY SAYS
- Message-ID: <1992Sep12.003828.4776@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 00:38:28 GMT
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- [Via misc.activism.progressive from PeaceNet's trade.news]
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- Topic 1dl57 TRADE.NEWS 9-11-92
- kmander Updates on GATT & NAFTA Negotiations 1:00 pm Sep 11, 1992
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- TRADE NEWS BULLETIN
- Friday, September 11, 1992
- _________________________________________________________
- NAFTA News Summary
- _________________________________________________________
- NAFTA COULD COST 150,000 JOBS LABOR SECRETARY SAYS
-
- Labor Secretary Lynn Martin became the first Bush Administration
- official to admit publicly that the North American Free Trade
- Agreement could cost U.S. jobs. In testimony before the Senate
- Finance Committee, Martin said NAFTA could put up to 150,000
- Americans out of work, but argued the Administration would offset
- the job losses by setting aside US$10 billion to retrain displaced
- workers. Democratic senators criticized the program because the
- Administration has not suggested how to pay for it.
-
- [But of course the Bush admin is such a good friend of
- middle-class, blue-collar labor, we can trust them --HB]
-
- U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills and other Administration
- officials had been asked repeatedly for an official figure on job
- losses, but until yesterday, officials had said economic studies
- showed job gains would exceed job losses. A recent AFL-CIO study
- predicted NAFTA could lead to a loss of 500,000 jobs.
-
- The House Agriculture Committee has scheduled its own hearing on
- NAFTA for September 16. The hearing will focus on the treaty's
- agricultural trade provisions and its effects on the U.S. agricultural
- economy, food safety and pesticide standards, and related
- environmental issues, announced Committee Chairman Kika de la
- Garza (D-Texas). USTR Hills and top officials from the departments of
- Agriculture, Labor, and the Environmental Protection Agency have
- been asked to testify.
-
- Source: Tim Shorrock, "Labor Secretary Says NAFTA Could Cost
- 150,000 US Jobs," JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, September 11, 1992;
- Keith Bradsher, "Trade Pact Could Cost Up to 150,000 U.S. Jobs," NEW
- YORK TIMES, September 11, 1992; "House Agriculture Committee
- Schedules Hearing on NAFTA and Agriculture," NEWS RELEASE,
- September 3, 1992.
- _________________________________________________________
- CLINTON: NAFTA LACKS IMPORTANT PROVISIONS
-
- Democratic Presidential nominee Bill Clinton said the North American
- Free Trade Agreement appears to lack important provisions
- concerning the environment and labor. "There is nothing in the
- agreement about worker retraining -- the President really has no
- proposal on that -- and very little about environmental cleanup, two
- things he made real commitments on," Clinton said during a
- television interview.
-
- Clinton added that he did not want to "prejudge the agreement until
- I have the time to study it, because we do need one if it's the right
- one." Clinton's remarks followed a Wednesday statement by House
- Majority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri) demanding that
- NAFTA be renegotiated because it lacked acceptable environmental
- and labor provisions.
-
- President Bush has sharply criticized Clinton in recent weeks for not
- taking a definitive stand on the agreement, leading some business
- leaders to encourage Bush to soften his attacks. Kay Whitmore,
- chairman of Eastman Kodak Co. and a key adviser to the White House
- on NAFTA, said it is fair for Clinton to reserve judgment on the treaty
- until he has had an opportunity to review it. "We've tried to say to
- both (Democrats and Republicans), 'Please don't over-politicize this,
- it's too important.'"
-
- An opinion-editorial in today's WALL STREET JOURNAL urges Clinton
- to state an opinion on NAFTA so that if he is elected to the White
- House, the American public would know "whether he would listen to
- the free trade angel who sits on his right shoulder, or the fallen
- archangel Gephardt perched on his left."
-
- Source: "Clinton Criticizes Free Trade Pact," NEW YORK TIMES,
- September 11, 1992, p. A13; John Maggs, "Business Leader Raps
- Politicizing of Trade Pact," JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, September 11,
- 1992, p. 1; "Slick Traders," WALL STREET JOURNAL, September 11,
- 1992, p. A10.
- _________________________________________________________
- POPULATION EXPERT: NAFTA WON'T DECREASE IMMIGRATION
-
- In a letter to the editor of the NEW YORK TIMES, Donald Mann,
- president of Negative Population Growth, rejects the widely held
- view that improving the Mexican economy through NAFTA will
- reduce illegal immigration to the United States. Mann argues the
- explosive growth of Mexico's population and labor force will continue
- the "pressures that drive millions of Mexicans across our southern
- border illegally."
-
- Source: Donald Mann, "Trade Pact Won't Cut Illegal Immigration,"
- NEW YORK TIMES, September 11, 1992, p. A14.
- _________________________________________________________
- PBS BROADCASTS DEBATE ON FREE TRADE
-
- The PBS program "Firing Line" will broadcast tonight a debate over
- the proposition, "United States Industry Does Not Need Protection."
- Espousing the virtues of free trade are political commentator William
- F. Buckley, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Secretary of
- Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp and Rep. Dick Armey (R-
- Texas). Those advocating at least some degree of protection are Rep.
- Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri), economist Lester Thurow, ATLANTIC
- MONTHLY editor James Fallows and former California governor Jerry
- Brown.
-
- The program, which was taped last week at the University of
- Mississippi, is moderated by Michael Kinsley.
-
- Source: Walter Goodman, "The Big Guns Take Sides in Trade-Policy
- Debate," NEW YORK TIMES, September 11, 1992, p. B7.
- _________________________________________________________
- Produced by:
- Kai Mander, The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)
- 1313 Fifth Street SE, Suite #303
- Minneapolis, MN 55414-1546 USA
- Telephone:(612)379-5980 Fax:(612)379-5982 E-
- Mail:kmander@igc.org
- _________________________________________________________
-
-