This would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. In today’s Wall Street Journal, there is a story about on-going negotiations between the Administration and Democrats to try to resolve differences on pending so-called “free trade” deals. As I wrote recently, the Columbia so-called “free trade” deal is being held up because of labor rights problems (I’ll come back to that in a sec), as are other deals.

But, here’s the amazing paragraph to me:

A problem that especially worries Republicans and the administration is
how to ensure new labor commitments don’t unintentionally rebound at
home, where American businesses already have high workplace standards
under U.S. law. Some officials fret about the limits imposed by U.S.
law on the ability of government workers to organize and worry that
putting ILO principles in a bilateral trade deal might lead to legal
actions over whether the U.S. itself fully complies with the basic
international rights.

Now, if there was an acknowledgment on how poor labor rights are here–that the right to organize is effectively absent–that has got to be it.

Generally, the rest of the article is quite troubling. It reaffirms that Democrats, particularly House Ways and Means Chair Charles Rangel are looking for ways to make deals to pass the so-called “free trade” agreements by improving labor rights provisions. I continue to argue that those deals should not be passed because their basic structure–framing trade as corporate and investment issues first and, then, tacking on social concerns as an after-thought–are flawed.