Bad Peru Trade Deal Passes Houses, Ignores Opposition

Democrat leaders in the House were right. They did have more pressing issues than impeaching a vicious, dangerous criminal vice president (who by the way happened to say the other day that Hugo Chavez was the president of Peru) who is quickly drifting into senility. They claimed that they had more important things to accomplish apparently such as the passing of a very bad "free trade" agreement that was agreed to by the leaders of Peru only after a Republican-led blackmail attempt that ultimately worked, and helped along the way by the Democrats using the fast track rule in Congress to move things along undemocratically. It will provide catastrophic results for citizens of Peru, and it's not good for Americans either. Pretty much everyone hates it. But that doesn't stop this government.

The main effect this will have on Americans (but not limited to) is the promotion of off-shore jobs, lack of confidence in how safe the food is that comes through unregulated, affect farmers of peas and onions among other crops, and it provides way too much power for the big corporations to do as they see fit in order to keep their big profits steady. The impact on the people of Peru will be much worse. Thousands among thousands will be displaced to other countries. The deal will put a stranglehold on almost all Peruvian farmers of crops such as cotton, some of who barely make it year to year already. They will be losing money just by keeping their farms going, much less have enough to feed their families. That is their only way of making a living there. It will also allow big pharmaceutical companies to come in and steal knowledge and easily available medical life forms that they will use to patent and take away from the people there that need it, unless they pay a very big price.

The flaws in these trade agreements are endless. If there are this many flaws, and so many people are against them, why are they being forced on us you may ask? You really just have to look at who benefits from it, both in the short and long term. But hey; the government will be able to increase their secret drug profits at the tax payer and poverty-stricken folks in the middle of these "free" trade agreements expense, all in the name of the war on drugs of course. The deal still has to be passed through the Senate, but they have more stressing issues to deal with to be bothered with hearing from any sort of peasant opposition, like approving torture-lover Michael Mukasey to be the new attorney general.

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a free trade pact with Peru, bringing President George W. Bush to the brink of his first trade victory since Democrats took control of Congress.

The House voted 285-132 to approve the agreement, which was revamped earlier this year to include groundbreaking labor and environmental provisions. The final tally showed 109 Democrats and 176 Republicans voted in favor of the pact.

The Senate is expected to give final congressional approval to the deal by the end of the year. It locks in Peru's duty-free access to the U.S. market, while phasing out Peru's tariffs on U.S. agricultural and manufactured goods.