Yesterday, The Senate Passed NAFTA 2.0-- Does Anyone Really Think Anything Good Can Come Out Of Trumpism?

The passage of Trump's flawed North American trade policy should help voters discern differences in the candidates who voted for it and the candidates who voted against it. The vote was 89-10. Only one presidential contender in the Senate opposed it, Bernie. Like MoscowMitch, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and, obviously, Colorado neolib Michael Bennet, voted for it. Nine Democrats and one Republican opposed Trump on this:

• Bernie (I-USA)
• Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
• Cory Booker (D-NJ)
• Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
• Kamala Harris (D-CA)
• Ed Markey (D-MA)
• Brian Schatz (D-HI)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
• Jack Reed (D-RI)
• Pat Toomey (R-PA)

Erica Werner and Rachel Siegel wrote the vote up from an establishment perspective for the Washington Post, noting it is "delivering on President Trump’s promise of a new and better North American trade deal just ahead of his impeachment trial," although why they decided to lead by deciding it is "better" is anyone's guess.

Only 41 members of the House had opposed it last month, 38 Democrats, 2 Republicans + Michigan independent Justin Amash. Among the Democrats voting no in the House were outstanding progressives like AOC (NY), Pramila Jayapal (WA), Ilhan Omar (MN), Jamie Raskin (MD), Ted Lieu (CA), Rashida Tlaib (MI), Mark Pocan (WI), Barbara Lee (CA), Andy Levin )MI), Jim McGovern (MA) and Ayanna Pressley (MA).

Werner and Siegel reported that "months of negotiations between Democrats and the White House produced pro-labor revisions and jettisoned drug exclusivity language sought by the pharmaceutical industry. The 12-million-strong AFL-CIO was closely involved in negotiating the changes and backed the agreement, along with some other major unions... Senate Republicans had little influence in the process because Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) held a make-or-break role in deciding whether to bring the deal up on the floor of the House, which by law had to act first on the agreement. The outsized role played by House Democrats and their allies in labor angered some Republicans, including Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), the deal’s most outspoken opponent, who complained that the Senate got 'rolled' in the process."

Bernie voiced his opposition on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday during the debate.

"This agreement is opposed by labor unions like the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the United Food and Commercial Workers.  It is opposed by the Sunrise Movement, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters and every major environmental group in America.

  "And it is opposed by the National Family Farm Coalition, which believes it will lock in rules that have devastated family farms and expanded corporate control over agriculture in North America.

"I am proud to stand with these labor unions, environmental groups and family farmers against Trump’s NAFTA 2.0.

"I not only voted against NAFTA in 1993, but marched against it. In 2000, I voted against Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China. I opposed the United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement and DR-CAFTA. And I helped lead the effort in Congress and with the grassroots across this country against the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"There is no doubt in my mind that we need to fundamentally rewrite our disastrous trade agreements and create and protect good-paying American jobs, to improve the environment and combat climate change, and to stop the destructive race to the bottom.

"Unfortunately, this revised trade agreement with Mexico and Canada does none of those things. It must be re-written.

"While NAFTA has led to the loss of nearly one million American jobs, this agreement does virtually nothing to stop the outsourcing of jobs to Mexico. Under this agreement, large, multi-national corporations will still be able to shut down factories in America where workers are paid $28 an hour and move to Mexico where they are paid less than $2 an hour.

"When Trump was a candidate for president he promised that he would stop the outsourcing of American jobs to Mexico, China and other low-wage countries. It hasn’t happened.

"The truth is, since Trump took office, over 170,000 American jobs have been shipped overseas. In 2018, we had a record-breaking $891 billion trade deficit in goods, a $419 billion trade deficit with China and an $81 billion trade deficit with Mexico. In 2018, for the first time in history, manufacturing workers began getting paid less than workers overall. Today, manufacturing workers get $28.15 an hour while the average worker makes 15 cents more.

"Last month alone, we lost 12,000 factory jobs and despite Trump’s rhetoric we are in a manufacturing recession.

"Mr. President, there is a reason why virtually every major environmental group is opposed to Trump’s NAFTA 2.0. This agreement does nothing to stop fossil fuel companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron from dumping their waste and pollution into Mexico and destroying the environment. In fact, it makes it easier for fossil fuel companies to bring tar sands oil into the United States through dangerous pipelines like the Keystone XL. It does not even mention the words 'climate change'-- the most existential threat facing our planet.

"The deal preserves the disastrous Investor-State Dispute Settlement system for oil and gas companies, allowing them to continue to put corporate profits ahead of our air, water, climate and health.

"Mr. President, at this pivotal moment in American history, it is not good enough to tinker around the edges. The scientific community has been very clear-- if we do not act boldly and aggressively to transform our economy to sustainable sources of power, there will be irreparable harm done to our planet.

"In my view, we need to re-write this trade agreement to stop the outsourcing of American jobs, to combat climate change, to protect the environment, and stop the destructive race to the bottom.

"We have got to stop large, profitable corporations that are outsourcing American jobs overseas from receiving lucrative federal contracts.

"And we have got to repeal Trump’s tax giveaway to the wealthy that have provided huge tax breaks to companies that shut down manufacturing plants in the U.S. and move abroad.

"Trade is a good thing, but it has got to be fair.

"Let us defeat NAFTA 2.0 and go back to the drawing board to protect American workers, to protect the environment and to lift the living standards of all workers."

I asked some of the 2020 congressional candidates how they feel about this trade bill. Many answered the same way Brianna Wu, running in the Boston area against a reactionary New Dem, who said she understands "why people would support this, but it's clear this is not a long-term solution for American workers. And I agree with Senator Sanders that this does not go far enough on raising wages or addressing climate change. When I am serving in Congress we won't settle for half-measures that pad corporate profits. We will stand unapologetically with working class Americans."

Werner and Stein also noted that "The deal created divisions in the Democratic presidential primary field. In a debate Tuesday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) predicted that the agreement would lead to the continued outsourcing of U.S. jobs and said, 'We could do much better than a Trump-led trade deal.' But other leading candidates, including Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), support the deal. Warren called it a 'modest improvement' that will deliver needed relief to farmers and workers hurt by Trump’s trade policies.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) voted against USMCA, saying that while the deal does include labor provisions, “it does not address climate change, the greatest threat facing the planet.” In a statement, Schumer said that the Trump administration is giving incentives for manufacturers to move businesses and jobs from the U.S. to Mexico, which has weaker clean air and water regulations.

“The Trump administration also included handouts for the oil and gas industry, such as lifting tariffs on tar sands, and refused to include any mention of the climate crisis in the agreement," Schumer said.

...USMCA also includes new rules for digital trade, something that barely existed when the original NAFTA was written. Among these, however, is a provision that provides protections to big tech companies by giving legal immunity to internet platforms over content posted by users. Pelosi opposed the provision but was unsuccessful in keeping it out of the deal in the final throes of talks last month. She cited it as her one disappointment in how the deal turned out.

Economists also worry that USMCA will spur a spike in car prices, especially on smaller cars that used to be produced in Mexico but may be subject to duties at the border. U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel are also still in place.

Our progressive hero in Arizona, Eva Putzova, was very clear she won't be voting for this kind of trade agreement when she replaces Blue Dog Tom O'Halleran. "Like Bernie Sanders and AOC," she said after the Senate vote, "I oppose the USMCA, also known as NAFTA 2.0. We need trade agreements that protect workers and the environment and address climate change, not to enhance corporate profits. We have to retool the global economy and those agreements can be part the climate crisis solution. When I am in Congress that is the lens I will use when considering any future trade agreements. There won't be any trade on a dead planet."

Mark Gamba, mayor of Milwaukie, Oregon, is running for a congressional seat occupied by a another reactionary Blue Dog, the notorious Kurt Schrader. Gamba told us that "The childishly named USMCA is only nominally better than NAFTA. Both allow for environmental destruction to leak to other countries, dramatically reducing the effectiveness of our own environmental laws. At a time when we should be taxing oil companies to pay for the damage they've caused this agreement does the opposite. Thousands of good American jobs will continue to be killed so that millionaires can make even more, by paying mexican workers 1/10 of what Americans make. At a time when we should be helping small family farms that grow our food sustainably, this does the opposite and guarantees more giant aggribusiness takeover of food production. Most importantly, at a time when the greatest existential threat to all of humanity is climate chaos, an agreement that doesn't even mention it, let alone create protections from it, should have made this a NO vote for every thinking member of congress. Of course, my Blue Dog opponent was happy to vote for this terrible trade agreement. I would not have."