Now he presents himself as a global liberal, insisting on international environmental and worker standards before trade deals are signed.
The real motto of U.S. trade unions is: We're for more worker standards in Africa, not more work.
The unions don't want to say that out loud -- so they tell you they are for free trade with countries that get their worker standards up.
Is there a need, therefore, for a coordinated enforcement of foreign worker standards between the EU and the UK's new groceries co-adjudicator?
But they can't point to a single country that has flourished, or upgraded its living or worker standards, without free trade and integration.
It's also worth noting that the T.P.P. supplants and upgrades worker standards in free-trade pacts previously signed by the U.S. with Australia, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, Chile, and Peru.
Trade agreements must balance the needs of an increasingly interconnected economy with the protection of communities, worker standards and the environment.
There is a way for Africa to gain duty-free access in textiles to the U.S. market, without harming U.S. workers or worker standards in Africa, but it takes a will to find it.
In most developing countries, however, political leaders are adamantly opposed to any linking of worker standards to trade agreements, arguing that imposing rules from outside threatens to undermine the competitive advantage they need to support their own economic development.
After Cambodia made an unprecedented effort to improve its worker standards -- in order to win greater access to the U.S. apparel market -- Unite still opposed increases in Cambodia's quota, citing areas where Cambodia wasn't perfect.
Indeed, two-thirds of 211 House Democrats are likely to vote against the measure, but Democratic critics of China's record on human rights, worker standards and environmental protections were vastly outnumbered in the pro-trade Ways and Means Committee today.
