NAFTA Renegotiation Will Resurrect Failed TPP Proposals | Hacker News Reader

NAFTA Renegotiation Will Resurrect Failed TPP Proposals

eff.org

28 pointsDiabloD33 comments

I am not surprised large corporations are lobbying to enforce strict copyright laws onto even more countries. The problem with trade with Mexico, though, is not the copyright laws, but the cheap labor. When Mexico's minimum wage is $0.48, there's no way American labor can compete. And once the jobs are shipped there, Mexico has no incentive to raise wages for Mexicans. In fact, they have an incentive to keep the people poor so they can keep getting foreign jobs.

What we need to do is to extend our labor and environmental protection laws to the countries we trade with. If we don't do that, then our labor will continue to be uncompetitive, people will be unable to unionize, middle class jobs will continue to disappear, and the capital owners will continue to be the only ones to benefit from globalization.

Seeing this written here was pretty hilarious to me, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but one of the central parts of the TPP was exactly the point you're making: To expand tighter labor and environmental laws into places like Vietnam so American workers aren't competing against foreign workers whose government is willing to destroy their health and environment to undercut them in price.

The expansion of American copyright laws that the EFF is so against, is mainly there since selling America IP ( both cultural and intellectual) to foreign customers is one of the biggest sources of export income for American corporations and thus a big source of wages for their American employees. You of course can't sell a Disney DVD or a software solution to someone in Vietnam if it's legal for them to just copy it whenever they want.

Judging from the effect Mexican and Asian imports have had on America's manufacturing industries, I feel it's pretty smart to be skeptical. The middle class lost tons of jobs because of NAFTA, and the low demand for labor is a major cause of the currently stagnant wages. IP may be an important subject, but I'd say the stability and equality of our society and economy should be our #1 priority right now.

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