Hoffa and the Teamsters Decry Peruvian Free Trade Agreement

On Friday, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters took President Bush to task for signing the Peru Free Trade Agreement instead of a bill to provide health care for children.

Bush has twice vetoed the renewal of SCHIP, the bipartisan bill that gives health insurance to children in low-income working families, because of what the White House feels are too many middle class entitlements and too much interference with the free market included in the renewed version spearheaded by the Majority Party in Congress.

"These deals are less about reducing trade barriers than they are about exploiting cheap labor and protecting investments of multinational corporations. If the Bush administration brings forward a free trade agreement with Colombia, I hope Congress will agree with me and say 'hell, no!' It's time to say yes to cracking down on China's currency manipulation, yes to food and product safety standards for imports," said Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa.

However, on pages 14 and 15 of his book The Age of Turbulence, former Federal Reserve Chairman and economic living legend Alan Greenspan writes, "If the story of the past quarter of a century has a one-line plot summary, it is the rediscovery of the power of market capitalism...The spreading of a commercial rule of law and especially the protection of the rights to property has fostered a worldwide entrepreneurial stirring. This in turn has led to the creation of institutions that now anonymously guide an ever-increasing share of human activity -- an international version of Adam Smith's 'invisible hand.'"

Those who favor free trade agree with Greenspan's endorsement of "a worldwide entrepreneurial spirit", and they say that free trade means or should mean not only a removal of trade barriers such as high tariffs on imports, but also the total elimination of subsidies such as those that the United States government gives to its big agricultural producers, resulting in global harm to farmers in poorer nations as well as higher food prices on the whole for Americans.

Venezuelan President and Socialist Hugo Chavez is very displeased with Peru's growth as a capitalist democracy and has been spending a lot of energy trying to roust the people of Peru into a revolt against the government. Since Chavez is an outspoken enemy of the United States, Peru is seen by the U.S. as a battlefield for ideologies as well as an ally in a mostly Socialist region of the world.

The vast majority of Peruvians said they are in favor of the new free trade agreement, Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa recently wrote that he is now far more optimistic about the future of his nation, the middle class has expanded, and the poor have been realizing substantial increases in income.

Original Newswire Source:
http://prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-14-2007/0004723125&EDATE=