400,000 New Jobs Or 90,000 Unemployed? A Tale Of Two Free Trade Agreements

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

In Europe, EU commissioners received the green light to start negotiations for an EU-Japan free trade agreement (FTA), despite the complaints of the auto industry, notably the one in Italy, and PSA in France, Reuters reports. Japan is the EU’s third-largest trading partner after the United States and China, and the architects of the FTA hope for 400,000 new jobs to be created in Europe as a result of the agreement.

Meanwhile in America, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, talks are in their third year and are going nowhere. The agreement would lift trade barriers between the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and, as Reuters says, “almost any country with a Pacific shore.” The natives are getting restless though. They claim that the U.S. is making overreaching demands. 15 countries started negotiations about their own Asia-Pacific FTA, without the meddlesome U.S. In the U.S. the American Automotive Policy Council has come to diametrically different conclusions than the EU. It says inclusion of Japan in the TPP “would put 90,000 U.S. auto jobs at risk.” Ernest Bower, director of Southeast Asia studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, thinks time is running out for the TPP: “I think there’s a deal in 2013 or it’s dead, because I don’t think the Asian countries will wait around longer than that.”

The contentious issue of Japan’s membership in the TPP probably will be solved. On December 16, Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party LDP is expected to be victorious. It is critical of the TPP.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Gentle Ted Gentle Ted on Nov 29, 2012

    I think all this free trade talk is wanting to get jobs to poorer Contries at the cost of less Jobs in both Canada and the USA, someone wants to make Money and not having to pay decent wages to our present workers, all of this from Right leaning Governments like the one we have here in Ottawa, many attacks on our Unions and our Workers, a race to the bottom!

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    • Jeffzekas Jeffzekas on Nov 29, 2012

      There is no such thing as free trade, as countries can manipulate their currency (China) or subsidize factories (again China) in order to sell products at below manufacturing cost. This is why everything in Walmart says "Made in China" on it!

  • Blowfish Blowfish on Nov 29, 2012

    the unpalatable truth are the rich will stop at no end to exploit the workers regardless of race & creeds etc. u look at why the banks failed 5 yrs ago so badly, is sole the responsible of the wall st gangs trying to screw every & each one of us.

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    • Landcrusher Landcrusher on Nov 29, 2012

      If you mean the rich AND powerful, and your Wall Street Gang includes the whole organized cabal of regulators, legislators, and lawyers that fixed the game so that things ostensibly illegal and immoral were technically not prosecutable while claiming it was all for the good of the poor and disenfranchised then you have it about right.

  • DrunkenDonuts DrunkenDonuts on Nov 29, 2012

    I'm surprised this article didn't generate a response to the massive "left wing communist reptilian New World Order agenda" conspiracy, which is usually what the internet delivers. I don't speak for everyone, but I'd gladly pay more for goods if they were made by Americans. However, most other Americans, and the rest of the world, don't want to do so. The result is that Apple has more money than some poorer countries, yet their employees are just barely above slave labor. Look at all that wealth trickling down to the lower classes, right Reagan?

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