Panama Papers Offer More Evidence That Free Trade Isnt Really Free
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/panama_papers_offer_more_evidence_that_f
ree_trade_isnt_really_free_20160414/
Posted on Apr 14, 2016
By Michael Winship
From left, Vernon Jordan, former President Bill Clinton, Ron Kirk and
President Obama play golf in Marthas Vineyard. (Smialowski / AFP / Getty
Images)
This piece originally ran on BillMoyers.com
You might wonder what the connection is between a friendly game of golf last
summer in Marthas Vineyard and the Panama Papers. Read on.
As anyone who hasnt been in a caveor otherwise away from the
Internetknows, last week the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, working with more
than a hundred publications around the world, broke news of the biggest data
leak in history, from an anonymous source tapping into the Panamanian law
firm Mossack Fonseca.
Using eleven and a half million documents sent to them via encrypted files,
the reporters are revealing the dark secrets of offshore tax havens and
phony shell companies favored by the mega-rich and powerfulfrom plutocrats
and politicians to movie stars and professional athleteswho use them to
hide and hoard their fortunes, even as billions live and die in poverty.
But what about the United Stateswhy havent our usual suspects, the parade
of moneybags were used to seeing flaunt their wealth even as they do their
best to conceal vast portions of itmade an appearance in the leaked data?
Lets go back to that golf game in Marthas Vineyard.
It was a sunny August afternoon at the Farm Neck Golf Club, described by
Golf Digest as a jewel on the Vineyard where 18 holes during summer prime
time currently cost $170 a head. The players: President Obama, former
President Bill Clinton, their mutual friend, inside-the-Beltway
wheeler-dealer Vernon Jordan, and former US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
Start with Clinton. No sooner was the man from Hope in the White House
than he pushed for and signed NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement
that outsourced countless industries and, according to the Economic Policy
Institute, siphoned hundreds of thousands of jobs from the United States to
Mexico.
And Vernon Jordan? This one-time civil rights leader and champion of poor
folks is now one of the richest corporate lobbyists in Washington. As we
wrote a couple of years ago, Jordan is senior counsel at the powerful law
firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which recently became the most
lucrative lobbying operation in America, earning $8.6 million in the second
quarter of 2014
If you would know his position on free trade, hearken back to October
2005, and a speech by President George W. Bush at the Economic Club of
Washington (Jordan was then club president). Its important that people in
Washington not use trade as a political issue, Bush said. The objective is
to have strong support from Republicans and independents and discerning
Democrats, like Vernon Jordan.
The Presidents Obama and Clinton were out on the links in honor of Jordans
80th birthday. They could just as easily have been celebrating the ways in
which the three of themand Dubyahave helped give America a trade policy
that has devastated the working class but made the rich much more wealthy.
When the Panama Papers were released last week, President Obama said, There
is no doubt that the problem of global tax avoidance generally, is a huge
problem
There are folks here in America who are taking advantage of the
same stuff. A lot of it is legal, but thats exactly the problem. Its not
that theyre breaking the laws, its that the laws are so poorly designed
that they allow people, if theyve got enough lawyers and enough
accountants, to wiggle out of responsibilities that ordinary citizens are
having to abide by.
And whos responsible for that? Maybe the Panama Papers wont reveal further
offshore skullduggery by American business. But the fact is, were already
in it up to our necks. Go back to our long history with Panama, pulling it
away from Colombia to dig the canal and advance the interests of corporate
America.
Bring that history right up to 2011. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney had
pushed for, and Obama as president and Hillary Clinton as secretary of state
consummatedas one of their first priorities when they came to powerthe
Panama free trade agreement, an early investment in further corporate
support and further evidence that both parties are too often in league as
agents of corporate interests.
And guess who was at the pivot? The other fellow in that Marthas Vineyard
foursome, Ron Kirk. As US Trade Representative, he was key to those Panama
negotiations when Obama became president.
Barack Obama insists the White House did the right thing when the
administration pushed the deal and maintains that in fact he brought greater
transparency to Panamas financial transactions by insisting on a tax
information exchange agreement on the side.
But, as David Nakamura wrote in The Washington Post last week, Consumer
advocates who have fought U.S. trade policies said the administration and
its allies are trying to claim credit for reforms in Panama without
accepting responsibility for the revelations in the unfolding Panama Papers
scandal about potentially widespread tax avoidance.
Nakamura quoted Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizens Global Trade
Watch: The Panama Papers just show once again how entirely cynical and
meaningless are American presidents and corporate boosters lavish promises
of economic benefits and policy reforms from trade agreements
[I]nvestor
protections and official U.S. stamp of approval made it safer to send dirty
money to Panama.
In 2011, Hillary Clinton praised the Panama free trade agreement, and
similar deals with Colombia and South Korea, saying they would make it
easier for American companies to sell their products
The Obama
administration is constantly working to deepen our economic engagement
throughout the world, and these agreements are an example of that
commitment.
But as she, President Obama and Ron Kirk applied the thumbscrews to get the
Panama deal passed, Bernie Sanders made a powerful speech on the floor of
the Senate against the Panama deal saying that the pact would make this bad
situation much worse and keep the United States from cracking down on
abusive and illegal offshore tax havens. Those remarks are now viral on the
Web because it shows how much longer on this key issue Sanders has been
rightjust as the Panama Papers reveal how toothless our trade rules have
been.
If Sanders were not around today, Hillary Clinton would still be the
supporting TPP, the Trans Pacific Partnership. Its the Panama deal on
steroids. Until now the Democratic Party has been just as culpable as
Republicans on talking free trade while using these trade agreements to
rig the market for conglomerates. The main reason the Panama Papers probably
havent revealed as much on US corporations is that the technicalities of
the agreements effectively mask and legalize the hidden wiring that
benefits the big boys and confuses the public.
These trade deals hide a lot, and our public officials, especially the
Democrats who should know better, must not blindly buy into them. If Hillary
Clinton wonders why so many working people are supporting Bernie Sandersand
Donald Trump, for that mattershe needs look no further than the closet
where her husband keeps his golf clubs. It is, after all, a rich mans game.
Michael Winship is the Emmy Award-winning senior writer of Moyers & Company
and BillMoyers.com, and a former senior writing fellow at the policy and
advocacy group Demos. Follow him on Twitter at @MichaelWinship.
http://www.truthdig.com/ http://www.truthdig.com/
Panama Papers Offer More Evidence That Free Trade Isnt Really Free
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/panama_papers_offer_more_evidence_that_f
ree_trade_isnt_really_free_20160414/
Posted on Apr 14, 2016
By Michael Winship
From left, Vernon Jordan, former President Bill Clinton, Ron Kirk and
President Obama play golf in Marthas Vineyard. (Smialowski / AFP / Getty
Images)
This piece originally ran on BillMoyers.com
You might wonder what the connection is between a friendly game of golf last
summer in Marthas Vineyard and the Panama Papers. Read on.
As anyone who hasnt been in a caveor otherwise away from the
Internetknows, last week the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, working with more
than a hundred publications around the world, broke news of the biggest data
leak in history, from an anonymous source tapping into the Panamanian law
firm Mossack Fonseca.
Using eleven and a half million documents sent to them via encrypted files,
the reporters are revealing the dark secrets of offshore tax havens and
phony shell companies favored by the mega-rich and powerfulfrom plutocrats
and politicians to movie stars and professional athleteswho use them to
hide and hoard their fortunes, even as billions live and die in poverty.
But what about the United Stateswhy havent our usual suspects, the parade
of moneybags were used to seeing flaunt their wealth even as they do their
best to conceal vast portions of itmade an appearance in the leaked data?
Lets go back to that golf game in Marthas Vineyard.
It was a sunny August afternoon at the Farm Neck Golf Club, described by
Golf Digest as a jewel on the Vineyard where 18 holes during summer prime
time currently cost $170 a head. The players: President Obama, former
President Bill Clinton, their mutual friend, inside-the-Beltway
wheeler-dealer Vernon Jordan, and former US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
Start with Clinton. No sooner was the man from Hope in the White House
than he pushed for and signed NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement
that outsourced countless industries and, according to the Economic Policy
Institute, siphoned hundreds of thousands of jobs from the United States to
Mexico.
And Vernon Jordan? This one-time civil rights leader and champion of poor
folks is now one of the richest corporate lobbyists in Washington. As we
wrote a couple of years ago, Jordan is senior counsel at the powerful law
firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which recently became the most
lucrative lobbying operation in America, earning $8.6 million in the second
quarter of 2014
If you would know his position on free trade, hearken back to October
2005, and a speech by President George W. Bush at the Economic Club of
Washington (Jordan was then club president). Its important that people in
Washington not use trade as a political issue, Bush said. The objective is
to have strong support from Republicans and independents and discerning
Democrats, like Vernon Jordan.
The Presidents Obama and Clinton were out on the links in honor of Jordans
80th birthday. They could just as easily have been celebrating the ways in
which the three of themand Dubyahave helped give America a trade policy
that has devastated the working class but made the rich much more wealthy.
When the Panama Papers were released last week, President Obama said, There
is no doubt that the problem of global tax avoidance generally, is a huge
problem
There are folks here in America who are taking advantage of the
same stuff. A lot of it is legal, but thats exactly the problem. Its not
that theyre breaking the laws, its that the laws are so poorly designed
that they allow people, if theyve got enough lawyers and enough
accountants, to wiggle out of responsibilities that ordinary citizens are
having to abide by.
And whos responsible for that? Maybe the Panama Papers wont reveal further
offshore skullduggery by American business. But the fact is, were already
in it up to our necks. Go back to our long history with Panama, pulling it
away from Colombia to dig the canal and advance the interests of corporate
America.
Bring that history right up to 2011. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney had
pushed for, and Obama as president and Hillary Clinton as secretary of state
consummatedas one of their first priorities when they came to powerthe
Panama free trade agreement, an early investment in further corporate
support and further evidence that both parties are too often in league as
agents of corporate interests.
And guess who was at the pivot? The other fellow in that Marthas Vineyard
foursome, Ron Kirk. As US Trade Representative, he was key to those Panama
negotiations when Obama became president.
Barack Obama insists the White House did the right thing when the
administration pushed the deal and maintains that in fact he brought greater
transparency to Panamas financial transactions by insisting on a tax
information exchange agreement on the side.
But, as David Nakamura wrote in The Washington Post last week, Consumer
advocates who have fought U.S. trade policies said the administration and
its allies are trying to claim credit for reforms in Panama without
accepting responsibility for the revelations in the unfolding Panama Papers
scandal about potentially widespread tax avoidance.
Nakamura quoted Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizens Global Trade
Watch: The Panama Papers just show once again how entirely cynical and
meaningless are American presidents and corporate boosters lavish promises
of economic benefits and policy reforms from trade agreements
[I]nvestor
protections and official U.S. stamp of approval made it safer to send dirty
money to Panama.
In 2011, Hillary Clinton praised the Panama free trade agreement, and
similar deals with Colombia and South Korea, saying they would make it
easier for American companies to sell their products
The Obama
administration is constantly working to deepen our economic engagement
throughout the world, and these agreements are an example of that
commitment.
But as she, President Obama and Ron Kirk applied the thumbscrews to get the
Panama deal passed, Bernie Sanders made a powerful speech on the floor of
the Senate against the Panama deal saying that the pact would make this bad
situation much worse and keep the United States from cracking down on
abusive and illegal offshore tax havens. Those remarks are now viral on the
Web because it shows how much longer on this key issue Sanders has been
rightjust as the Panama Papers reveal how toothless our trade rules have
been.
If Sanders were not around today, Hillary Clinton would still be the
supporting TPP, the Trans Pacific Partnership. Its the Panama deal on
steroids. Until now the Democratic Party has been just as culpable as
Republicans on talking free trade while using these trade agreements to
rig the market for conglomerates. The main reason the Panama Papers probably
havent revealed as much on US corporations is that the technicalities of
the agreements effectively mask and legalize the hidden wiring that
benefits the big boys and confuses the public.
These trade deals hide a lot, and our public officials, especially the
Democrats who should know better, must not blindly buy into them. If Hillary
Clinton wonders why so many working people are supporting Bernie Sandersand
Donald Trump, for that mattershe needs look no further than the closet
where her husband keeps his golf clubs. It is, after all, a rich mans game.
Michael Winship is the Emmy Award-winning senior writer of Moyers & Company
and BillMoyers.com, and a former senior writing fellow at the policy and
advocacy group Demos. Follow him on Twitter at @MichaelWinship.
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