NAFTA Renegotiation Topic
Canada can adopt all the laws they want to adopt to burden industry. There's no reason why the US or Mexico has to hobble our businesses to make them less competitive against Canada.
And if Mexico is so corrupt then why would you ever trust them to uphold their end of a trade agreement? ![huh? [huh]](./images/smilies/icon_scratch.gif)
herbie @ Wed Sep 06, 2017 4:02 pm
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
Herbie,
I for one have no opposition to anyone joining a union. What I oppose and what many others oppose is that people are often FORCED to join a union in order to get a particular job.
Let the unions compete for members and we'll have better unions.
It might surprise you that I do not have to be a union member to have my job but I'm a member of SEIU because aside from the political shit they do I believe they're a very necessary organization.
But if I had my way I'd join another union if I could. You can do that in a right-to-work state but not in California.
You are not forced to participate in one. You're free to pay your dues and not participate.
Your a fucking SCAB if you think you should derive the benefits of a union contract and not have to pay the dues. Period.
herbie @ Wed Sep 06, 2017 4:04 pm
The proper term is worm
Scabs cross picket lines.
herbie herbie:
The proper term is worm
Scabs cross picket lines.
In right-to-work states the union folks can have a collective bargaining agreement and the non-union folks can work at-will with individual agreements that typically include the kinds of profit-sharing agreements that unions almost always oppose.
It doesn't make someone a worm or a scab and that kind of bullying and intimidation is a big reason why so many people support right-to-work.
If the union can make the case to recruit members then they can recruit members. Unions did this all the time before there were laws mandating collective bargaining in some industries. They can do it again.
Seriously, I give more money to the NRA than I pay to the SEIU. The NRA makes the case to me and they make clear the value I get from my support.
No one calls gun owners names if they don't join the NRA. No one has to be intimidated to join the NRA.
So there's no excuse why unions have to act like assholes when people don't see the value in joining them.
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
I boldly predict that NAFTA renegotiations will end in an impasse and the US will pull out of it.
I boldly predict that all of Trump's rhetoric is nothing more than a negotiating tactic to get a couple things the US wants.
That's because if the US does pull out of NAFTA, their economy will take a major hit too.
herbie @ Thu Sep 07, 2017 8:30 am
It does make people worms or scabs - by definition.
Benefiting from the work of others makes one an asshole regardless if you simply refuse to admit it to yourself or others. No different than stealing someone else's song, book, design or invention.
But enough on that, now some are claiming that Canada and the US imposing any standards would be 'preventing' the benefits of letting Mexicans so poor they'll do anything at all for as little as they can get from participating in the economy.
Kind of exposing the 'race to the bottom' objective some supporters clearly endorse over the 'rising tides' theory they use to sell Free Trade...
You know, I'm still a believer in actual free trade. But this NAFTA BS with all the loopholes and carve-outs isn't free trade. It's just a web of laws and intrigues that benefit the multinationals and their bought-and-paid-for government toadies.
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
Trump has vehemently opposed NAFTA from the very outset and I just don't see him passing on an opportunity to kill it.
Because he's not intelligent or experienced enough to understand NAFTA. He's probably read a few articles from Bannon and watched Fox news and that's the depth of his understanding.
I'm continually amazed that guys like you, guys that present themselves as successful and intelligent, can sit there and be confident with Trump making choices like this on topics he's absolutely clueless about.
MeganC @ Sat Sep 09, 2017 9:06 am
I don't get how people call Trump clueless about business and then slam him for being a successful billionaire. 
Coach85 Coach85:
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
Trump has vehemently opposed NAFTA from the very outset and I just don't see him passing on an opportunity to kill it.
Because he's not intelligent or experienced enough to understand NAFTA. He's probably read a few articles from Bannon and watched Fox news and that's the depth of his understanding.
I'm continually amazed that guys like you, guys that present themselves as successful and intelligent, can sit there and be confident with Trump making choices like this on topics he's absolutely clueless about.
First off Trump isn't negotiating NAFTA anymore than Trudeau is so saying one is ignorant of the process while ignoring the lack of understanding by the other is disingenuous.
But, since you're assuming Trump is doing the speaking for the Americans and doesn't have a clue about trade agreements or making deals allow me to point out that given some of the idiotic demands we brought to the table we can make the same assumption about Trudeau.
So, if that's actually the case I'd much rather have someone who's lost and made billions of dollars in business and who's willing to do what he considers necessary for his country making the decisions in a trade negotiation than someone who has "ZERO" real world financial experience and thinks that "budgets balance themselves".
Here is a brief list of Canada’s key demands:
A new chapter on labour standards.
A new chapter on environmental standards.
A new chapter on gender rights.
A new chapter on Indigenous rights.Reforms to the investor-state dispute settlement process. Specifically, Freeland referred to Chapter 11 – which involves companies suing governments.
Expand procurement.
Freer movement of professionals.Protect Canada’s supply-management system for dairy and poultry.
Protect cultural exemptions.Maintaining a process to regulate anti-dumping and countervailing disputes, like the one over softwood lumber.
Some of those demands are rational but some of them have no place in a trade negotiation and if I was to hazard a guess those demands were included as a prelude to what our PM wants which is NAFTA to morph from a trade agreement into an EU like North American Gov't with unelected Parliaments, regulating bodies and all.
Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:
But, since you're assuming Trump is doing the speaking for the Americans and doesn't have a clue about trade agreements or making deals allow me to point out that given some of the idiotic demands we brought to the table we can make the same assumption about Trudeau.
Actually, it was Trump fan-boy Bart who said Trump was behind all of these changes and didn't see him passing on an opportunity to kill it.
Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:
Some of those demands are rational but some of them have no place in a trade negotiation and if I was to hazard a guess those demands were included as a prelude to what our PM wants which is NAFTA to morph from a trade agreement into an EU like North American Gov't with unelected Parliaments, regulating bodies and all.
Well, our PM doesn't want anything, because, as you said, these guys aren't really involved in the process. Right?
Coach85 Coach85:
Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:
But, since you're assuming Trump is doing the speaking for the Americans and doesn't have a clue about trade agreements or making deals allow me to point out that given some of the idiotic demands we brought to the table we can make the same assumption about Trudeau.
Actually, it was Trump fan-boy Bart who said Trump was behind all of these changes and didn't see him passing on an opportunity to kill it.
Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:
Some of those demands are rational but some of them have no place in a trade negotiation and if I was to hazard a guess those demands were included as a prelude to what our PM wants which is NAFTA to morph from a trade agreement into an EU like North American Gov't with unelected Parliaments, regulating bodies and all.
Well, our PM doesn't want anything, because, as you said, these guys aren't really involved in the process. Right?
Because they're not involved in the process doesn't mean they didn't give the troops their marching orders. But if what you say is true and Trudeau doesn't want anything I'm sure that when you combine the bizarre Canadian demands and Trumps hate for the accord, he'll get his wish.
MeganC MeganC:
I don't get how people call Trump clueless about business and then slam him for being a successful billionaire.

It's a lot easier to get rich when you don't pay contractors for the work they do:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol ... /85297274/http://fortune.com/2016/09/30/donald-tr ... ntractors/
rickc @ Sun Sep 10, 2017 8:32 pm
Honestly I am sick of hearing about free trade. I am tired of this race to the bottom. Every time it seems like we have found someone willing to work for rock bottom sub par slave wages, we find someone new willing to work for even less. Not just the people, but the country willing to turn a blind eye to environmental pollution, worker safety, subpar transport of dangerous materials, etc. At one point in time we were actually working towards the betterment of mankind. Better working conditions, safer work environments, less pollution from factories, more disposable income for workers, less hours worked and more time with the family, companies sharing profits with their loyal hard working employees, companies offering defined benefit pensions to their employees, companies promoting from within instead of bringing in outside hatchet men to decimate the workforce. Companies actually wanted to expand and grow the company, not sub the work out to the lowest bidder or move the plant offshore. It used to mean something to see the words: built in the U.S.A.
Where did it all go wrong? I don't know but I do know that I have had my fill of free trade. Fuck free trade. The only good thing about free trade as far as I am concerned is that I got laid off from a high tech semi conducter job in Massachusetts many years ago. The government said that NAFTA had something to do with it. I got some sweet deal from unemployment where I got to collect while I went to school for HVAC for a year. Within a few years I was making double what I was at the plant. For that I am grateful. I never wanted to be stuck at that plant anyway. I feel bad for all my friends that actually LIKED working in that boring monotonous plant that now have much lower paying jobs. They had families to support, mortgages to pay. All the textile workers in New England who lost their jobs. All the people assembling and soldering pc boards. All the people working for Wang, Digital Equipment Corp., Compaq, Osram slyvania, etc., that no longer have good paying jobs in the plants, and probably never will. They say: " fuck free trade!!! Fuck NAFTA!!!
rickc rickc:
Where did it all go wrong?
China.