Wash Post Re-Floats Possibility of Lame-Duck NAFTA Expansion

Glenn Greenwald [1] long ago taught us why we should always look skeptically at the fact-free prognostications of the Washington Post's Steve Pearlstein. That said, this line in Pearlstein's column today [2] caught my eye today (h/t lutton [3]):

"The haggling now [about the automaker bailout] is over the appropriate mechanism. My guess is that the whole thing will be wrapped up shortly after Thanksgiving, perhaps in a holiday package that will include congressional approval (but delayed implementation) of the free-trade agreement with Colombia." (emphasis added)

My last newspaper column [4] explored how the Colombia Free Trade Agreement is about nothing other than serving corporate interests; how poll after poll after poll has shown Americans intensely oppose such NAFTA expansions; how in 2006 and 2008, a total of 69 new congressional lawmakers [5] - mostly Democrats - won on an explicit promise to stop NAFTA expansions; and how therefore, the Republican push for this trade deal is a political ploy designed to fracture Democrats much like NAFTA fractured them in 1993.

Pearlstein admits that his prediction is a "guess" - which, in journalism speak, usually means it is the reporter's wish, but the reporter knows most of the facts align against that wish. That's probably especially true in this instance, considering even NAFTA proponent Rahm Emanuel has said Democrats are not going to support tying any economic stimulus or automaker bailout package to the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Emanuel may support corporate-written trade policies - but he's a political operator first and foremost, and likely understands what I was getting at in my column.

That said, the fact that the Washington Post's top business columnist feels the need to longingly push out this possibility shows us that the fight to reform our trade policy is far from over. The corporate media Establishment has long been one of the most powerful forces pushing mindless free-trade fundamentalism - and that Establishment is not about to let up.

UPDATE: For more on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, check out the Economic Policy Institute's recent backgrounder [6].