Our dysfunctional divided Congress finally was able to find some common ground Wednesday, passing long-delayed free-trade bills with South Korea, Panama and Colombia. Together, these treaties promise to increase U.S. exports by more than $12 billion a year while creating more than 300,000 jobs -- good news for our still-sluggish economy and struggling American workers.
Big business interests are hopeful that a Republican takeover of the House -- now looking more likely than not -- will thaw free-trade deals that have languished since President Obama took office. Those agreements are on a short list of priorities the White House has in common with GOP leaders.
There aren't many Fortune 500 executives on President Obama's good-guys list these days, but retiring Caterpillar chairman Jim Owens makes the cut. Caterpillar manufactures things instead of practicing financial wizardry. It moves mud rather than spills oil. More to the point: The iconic Peoria company produces the kind of well-paid manufacturing jobs that a recession-weary nation sorely needs.
Last week during the day, some kids in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, were playing soccer in a park when a car slowed down, guys got out and executed a 13-year-old boy. And then they drove away, unmolested in a city with 11,000 army and police officers.
Not even Franz Kafka could have dreamed this one up.
Companies that have invested in Mexico could be affected if the Mexican congress approves a change that would put an end to tax benefits that allow businesses to consolidate their earnings and losses, in order to pay less taxes, said specialized foreign trade consultant firm IQOM. The changes proposed by the federal government are being analyzed by Congress and could be incompatible with expropriation rules under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that Mexico, Canada and the United States have had since 1994.
The world faces crisis of finance, not a crisis of capitalism.
Trying to decipher where President Obama really stands on free trade can be like trying to trace the U.S.-Mexico border with a Google map. There are words, and there are actions - but there is mostly that long squiggly line in between.
Mexico has announced plans to raise tariffs on almost 90 U.S. exports, Mexican and U.S. officials confirmed Monday.
President Bush, in what could be his final overseas trip as president, called on international leaders Saturday to continue his administration's push for free trade despite the global financial crisis.
President Bush is at the APEC summit, appealing to world leaders to protect free trade. CNN's Juan Carlos Lopez reports.
A rapidly deteriorating situation in the U.S. auto industry may serve as the backdrop for a classic contest of political wills between the outgoing Bush administration on one hand and both President-elect Obama and the newly strengthened Democratic congressional majority on the other.
Both the White House and a senior aide to President-elect Obama on Tuesday emphatically denied there had been any attempt on the part of President Bush -- while meeting with Obama on Monday -- to link a federal bailout of the struggling auto industry or a second stimulus package to passage of a Colombia free trade deal.
Sen. John McCain discussed free trade, illegal drugs and better relations Tuesday night with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
(R) presidential candidate John McCain travels to Colombia to tout his support for free trade. Juan Carlos Lopez reports.
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, arrived in Tuesday in Colombia on a three-day trip that includes Mexico to talk about trade and drugs.
As Sen. John McCain prepares to promote free trade during a high-profile trip to Colombia and Mexico, a poll out Tuesday suggests the issue may be a political hurdle as the general election campaign heats up.
The general campaign is on, independent voters are up for grabs, and Barack Obama is toning down his populist rhetoric - at least when it comes to free trade.
In his weekly radio address, President Bush talks about the upcoming North American Leaders' Summit.
President Bush used a meeting with Mexican and Canadian leaders Monday to hammer Democrats who oppose a free trade deal between the U.S. and Colombia, saying that blocking the deal is "bad for American workers and bad for our security."
President Bush, joining the conservative leaders of Canada and Mexico for one final time, is eager to expand a trading relationship that has been lucrative for the United States and both of its neighbors
CNN's Candy Crowley reports on how the demotion of a top Clinton adviser might play in the union stronghold of Pennsylvania.
Sen. Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill don't see eye-to-eye when it comes to a controversial free trade pact.
President Bush on Monday moved to force a vote on a controversial free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia that Democrats oppose.
President Bush say a new trade deal with Colombia will advance American national security interests by strengthening a key ally.
Sen. Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters in Ohio about how she will be ready on day one to tackle problems.
Sen. Hillary Clinton Monday questioned her Democratic rival's commitment to renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, a charge that Sen. Barack Obama's camp called a "blatant distortion."
Organized labor has lately warmed to the Illinois Senator, and its help could be enough for him to eke out a victory in Ohio
Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sparred with each other over negative campaigning, health care and free trade Tuesday, a week before key primaries in Texas and Ohio.
Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton exchanged sharp words over trade as they campaigned before Ohio's crucial primary.
CNN's Anderson Cooper talks with Gloria Borger and David Gergen about the latest spat between Obama and Clinton.
An angry Sen. Hillary Clinton rips Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama over campaign mailings.
A visibly angry Sen. Hillary Clinton lashed out Saturday at Sen. Barack Obama over campaign literature that she said he knows is "blatantly false," while Obama called her outburst "tactical."
Farmers gather to protest NAFTA in Mexico City, demanding the government renegotiate the deal. CNN's Harris Whitbeck reports.
Hundreds of thousands of farmers clogged central Mexico City Thursday with their slow-moving tractors, protesting the entry of cheap imported corn from the United States and Canada.
"We are the champions - of the world" may be the verse that rings out in stadiums across the U.S., but in the great game of global trade, Americans are increasingly feeling like the losers. A large majority - 68% - of those surveyed in a new Fortune poll says America's trading partners are benefiting the most from free trade, not the U.S. That sense of victimhood is changing America's attitude about doing business with the world.
You don't have to travel to the Democratic side of the presidential race and to hear the chords of protectionism. That was evident at yesterday's Republican presidential debate in Johnston, Iowa - the last formal verbal joust before that state's voters kick off the official race by voting in caucuses on January 3.
As the capital's attention fixed on congressional maneuvering over Iraq war spending, a different drama was playing out in the offices of leading House members - one that would determine the nation's free trade path at a critical juncture.
President Bush has spent the past six days in Central and South America pushing his view that what he calls free trade is the solution for millions who live in poverty south of our border.
Victorious Democrats will, with the opening of the 110th Congress, have a historic opportunity to right the course of a country that has been hell-bent on permitting free-trade corporatists and faith-based economics to bankrupt the nation.
This Republican-led, do-nothing Congress is on its way home for a five-week vacation. I'm sure while there, they'll be glad to explain to their constituents why they need so much rest in a year in which they will work fewer than 80 days.
The dust has started to settle on President Bush's recent reshuffle of his White House team. Gone are Karl Rove and Scott McClellan. Gone too, it turns out, is President Bush's credibility as a free trader.
Staffers on Capitol Hill and in the Bush administration said Thursday it is unlikely that the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement will become active Jan. 1, as had been planned.
President Bush acknowledged Monday that it would be difficult to push any U.S.-Panama trade deal through Congress, but said getting one completed remains a top priority for his administration.
President Bush arrived Thursday night in Argentina for a summit with other leaders from across the Americas, where trade issues and fighting poverty are expected to be major topics of conversation.
President Bush said Congress members heading home for the August recess had a year of "great progress," citing, among other things, energy and Central American trade legislation.
After an all-day, full-court press by the White House, the House early Thursday narrowly approved the controversial Central America Free Trade Agreement, a pact supporters say will help strengthen fledgling democracies.
The Senate has approved a free trade pact known as CAFTA that includes five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic.
The U.S. Senate Thursday night approved a free trade pact with five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic.
Australia and China have signed a pact to begin negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA), with Australian Prime Minister John Howard saying Canberra recognizes China as a "market economy".
Negotiations to secure a free-trade agreement between Australia and Malaysia have begun in Canberra as the two countries mark a new step in their often troubled relationship.
The Bush administration is trying to push the Central American Free Trade Agreement through Congress quickly and quietly.
The Bush administration needs Congressional approval of the contentious Central American Free Trade Agreement, which is the top priority on its trade agenda this year.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that the Bush administration can skip a lengthy environmental study and open U.S. roadways to Mexican trucks as soon as it wishes.
The election year has begun, and politicians are about as apt to espouse the benefits of free trade as they are to rally against apple pie.
Economists, regardless of political affiliation, agree that free trade helps the world's economies. But you'd never know all the benefits of trade from listening to the Clinton Administration's rhe...
Remember when wine in a box meant cheap wine with a keglike tap? Now that Americans have become a bit more snobbish about their vino, wine in a box means a case of vintage bottles arriving on your ...
In October 1996, with the presidential election days away, President Clinton won a small victory: He got Mexico to raise the price it charges Americans for tomatoes. In November 1997, Clinton suffe...
America's trade policy--which has revolved around the concept of free trade for 50 years despite periodic outbreaks of protectionist fever--is nearing an important potential inflection point. Presd...
The trade winds are blowing in Washington, and the air is full of inscrutable phrases: Most-favored-nation status. Fast track. Negotiating authority. The ghosts of Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley. But...
Seated next to conveyors in a low-rise building that once housed a bicycle plant, workers with busy fingers stuff circuitboards with components. At the next station, fast-moving operatives insert t...
WHILE MOST of the country's attention is focused on what the next Congress will do, the old Congress has a momentous task to perform before disbanding -- and an enormous opportunity to make the wor...
Listen up, Ross. Economists Gary Hufbauer and Jeffrey Schott of the Institute for International Economics say now is the time to think about what's after NAFTA, lest we lose our free-trade momentum...
After 47 years in the auto industry, Lee Iacocca, 69, has embarked on several post-retirement careers. He remains a Chrysler consultant, for which he receives $500,000 a year and access to the comp...
-- Maya Angelou The poet's reading of her poem ''On the Pulse of Morning'' at the new President's Inauguration revitalized sales of her 1970 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The pape...
FREE TRADE, despite the considerable odds against it, has just won two of its biggest victories in decades: first the North American Free Trade Agreement, then the successful completion of a new Ge...
Though the Dow Jones industrial average was little changed in the first two weeks of November, it vaulted to a record high of 3710.77 on Nov. 16. One reason: Investors realized that Congress would ...
THE SHOWDOWN is finally at hand. In mid-November the U.S. Congress will give either a thumbs up or a thumbs down to the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement. With the vote too close to...
When a Parisian mob rushed to the barricades in what became the Revolution of 1848, a prominent revolutionary agitator, caught flat-footed by the uprising, said famously: ''We are their leaders; we...
A memo to Ross Perot and other noisy opponents of NAFTA: The treaty is not about jobs fleeing to Mexico in pursuit of lower wages. Every reputable study concludes there will be a modest net gain in...
It is time for an update on the Iowa Political Stock Market (IPSM), dwelt on morosely in this space last November. You may recall our muffled sobs at the time, reflecting $198.64 blown on the lesse...
FOREIGN TRAVEL may broaden your outlook, but foreign investing can fatten your wallet. Consider some of the returns from abroad so far this year: The Turkish stock market more than doubled; Finland...
Fortune: NEEDY NAFTAupdated: Mon Oct 18 1993 00:01:00
As prospects for the North American Free Trade Agreement shrank to the size of a Chihuahua, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen scolded U.S. business leaders for failing to support the treaty. ''We ne...
IN THE MIDST of the most critical political battle of his presidency -- the down-to-the-wire struggle to push his budget plan through Congress -- Bill Clinton met in the Oval Office with FORTUNE ma...
WHAT SHOULD the United States want in the world, and how can it get it? With the single word ''containment,'' diplomat George F. Kennan, writing as ''Mr. X'' in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affai...
THAT OMINOUS NOISE you hear threatening the North American Free Trade Agreement isn't what Ross Perot fears -- the sound of jobs being sucked south of the Rio Grande. It's the sound of foot draggin...
Probably no country in modern times has bounced back so well from the depths of despair as has Argentina. Blessed by nature but cursed by destructive political leadership since the days of Juan and...
TODAY Mexico's economy is vibrant, largely because of the free-trade policies of its dynamic, Harvard-educated President, Carlos Salinas. Since his election four years ago, Salinas, 44, has balance...
WHAT A CHANGE. A few years ago foreign trade looked like some giant leak in the American economy, siphoning all the prosperity of the past 200 years out into the rest of the world. In 1987 America'...
IS A PROTECTIONIST trade bloc likely to emerge in Asia between now and the next millennium? Don't bet on it. In a region where the religions are as different as Taoism and Islam and the languages r...
The North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) to eliminate trade barriers seems like a victory on the job front for Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Mexican factory hands earn an aver...
AS EUROPE rolls through 1992, the long-awaited year of economic integration is beginning to look more like the year of Euro-retreat. Worried by the increasingly obvious uncompetitiveness of much of...
An affable, articulate former French paratrooper, Alain Gomez, 53, is one of the biggest men in European electronics. The chairman of France's state-owned electronics giant, Thomson (1991 sales: $1...
AS EUROPE rolls through 1992, the long-awaited year of economic integration is beginning to look more like the year of Euro-retreat. Worried by the increasingly obvious uncompetitiveness of much of...
An affable, articulate former French paratrooper, Alain Gomez, 53, is one of the biggest men in European electronics. The chairman of France's state-owned electronics giant, Thomson (1991 sales: $1...
FORGET those scare stories about how a North American free-trade pact would affect the U.S. You know, the ones about mistreated Mexicans making $1 an hour in filthy, unsafe plants stealing jobs fro...
IF YOU DOUBT that there's a new climate for foreign businesses in Latin America, consider this tale. Michael Jordan, chairman of PepsiCo's international snack and beverage businesses, called on Mex...
THEY ARE MOSTLY gray-suited and sober-faced bureaucrats, but they understand magic: If each nation is free to concentrate on doing what it does best, the world will get richer. With that wizardry i...
Many leading Canadian stocks -- often easily buyable by American investors -- are likely to profit from the historic free trade pact between the U.S. and Canada that went into effect last month. Th...
AFTER A DECADE of frigid hostility toward foreign investment, welcoming winds are blowing in Canada, and American money is heading north again. The shift from strident nationalism to economic pragm...
You already may have received a free copy of Staying on Top: The Business Case for a National Industrial Strategy, by Kevin Phillips (Random House, $15.95). The author himself informs me in a promo...
© 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|