My Short Story of Free Trade - How the Clintons Betrayed America

I was a young man in my early 20's when the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed into law by Bill Clinton. It was the first time I felt betrayed by a President that I supported. Sadly, it wouldn't be the last.

I was vehemently opposed to the trade deal. It seemed to me that the American people were being sold out to multi-national corporations. Although George H.W. Bush claimed that he had negotiated tough standards to protect labor and the environment, I didn't believe him. I suspected that they wanted to exploit labor in Mexico and take advantage of lax enforcement of environmental regulations. I also thought it was just a part of Reagan's larger vision of an Americas without borders. I really didn't know how right I was at the time.

When we elected Bill Clinton, we didn't really know much about him. He was a governor from Arkansas. So we had little choice but to listen to his platform and make our decision based on what he was promising to do. No, we didn't trust him at all. But we had no federal voting record to compare.

And we listened. We listened to his promises of change. We just had 12 years of Republicans in the White House-- we were more than ready for change. At the time, the working class was angry. We were angry at the Republicans for busting our unions (the first step to bringing free trade to the U.S.) I knew at least a dozen people - moms and dads with families to feed -- who were on strike in the 1980's. The government was encouraging American businesses to move to other countries, and they offered tax incentives and subsidies to do it. (Yes, they really did that.) We were also angry with George H.W. Bush who said, "Read my lips: No new taxes," and then proceeded to create new taxes.

So Clinton and Gore campaigned on a platform of change-- investing in American business, keeping companies from moving overseas, and protecting American jobs. And that's precisely what most of us wanted. Clinton and Gore even appeared together on an episode of the Phil Donahue Show in Tennessee near a sportswear manufacturer that had recently moved to El Salvador. We were truly done with the GOP, and Clinton won in a landslide.

Just months into his presidency, I watched in horror at a press conference called by President Bill Clinton. It was the signing of what he said were, "side deals," for NAFTA that he negotiated to protect labor and the environment. He trotted out Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush who each spoke in hyperbole to support the agreement. I simply couldn't believe what I was seeing. Congress still had to ratify NAFTA before it could be implemented, but this show of power was so strong that I knew the legislation would eventually pass.

And it did pass, and Clinton signed it before the end of his first year in office. And we all know how that turned out. American wages have stagnated, jobs disappeared, trade deficits continued to grow, labor camps sprung up in Mexico, child labor skyrocketed, and there are some 14 million more people living in poverty in Mexico today than in 1994. Sure, we all get super low prices, but it is coming at a tremendous unseen cost. It is the slavery of the 21st Century-- happening somewhere else where American eyes don't have to see it.

According to the Economic Policy Institute:

"no protections were contained in the core of the agreement to maintain labor or environmental standards. As a result, NAFTA tilted the economic playing field in favor of investors, and against workers and the environment, resulting in a hemispheric “race to the bottom” in wages and environmental quality." ~Robert E. Scott, Economic Policy Institute, November 17, 2003

So what were those side deals all about? What was that big dog and pony show and dusting off all the American presidential relics?

Let's break this down. In 1992 George H.W. repeatedly said the core agreement had protections for workers and the environment. When Larry King asked Al Gore what changed about the NAFTA agreement that made Clinton/Gore have a change of heart in 1993, Gore said they had negotiated side deals to protect workers and the environment. Those side deals were allegedly the reason Clinton changed his mind and signed the agreement. And in the end, the biggest problem with NAFTA was that there were no protections for workers and the environment. Not inadequate protections-- no protections.

And that sends chills up and down my spine every time I think about it. Watch the video. It's all in there.




Today, we are rapidly approaching entire global free trade. If you think your quality of life has diminished in the last twenty years, just wait. Since 2001, our country has signed free trade agreements that are in force today with Jordan, Australia, Chile, Singapore, Bahrain, Morocco, Oman, Peru, Panama, Colombia, and South Korea. We are also in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic.

Proposed free trade agreements include the Free Trade Area of the Americas including all countries in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba (notice we are playing nice with Cuba these days?), the U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Area including most countries in the Middle East, the Transatlantic Free Trade Area including the European Union, and bilateral free trade agreements with New Zealand, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Taiwan, Ecuador, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

All of these free trade deals are great for Americans -- IF -- they own or invest in a multi-national corporation, For everyone else they are terrible deals. They cost Americans jobs and wages, and we are allowing the exploitation of child labor, poverty, and the pollution of the environment in other countries as a result of our consumer-driven economy. We have to stop this, America, before we fully belong to the global serfdom ourselves. And we are nearly out of time.

The first step? Vote for Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton.