Backlash grows against free trade
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A record US trade deficit is rekindling the globalization debate.
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Tens of thousands of South Korean workers held rallies and labor strikes Wednesday to oppose a free trade agreement with the United States and demand better working conditions.
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Two leading U.S. Senate critics of  China's currency policy pressed on Thursday for action on a  bill that would threaten steep tariffs, in a show of  frustration days before Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is to  make his first official visit to China.
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The Bush administration dramatically escalated a dispute with the European Union yesterday by filing one of the biggest complaints in World Trade Organization history, accusing European governments
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The record trade deficit, a sign of the growing imbalance of the U.S. dollar against other currencies, raised new concerns about the country's indebtedness.
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Democrats signal intention to block trade agreements with South Korea and Colombia.
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Tens of thousands of union members, farmers and political activists marched through Costa Rica's capital on Monday to protest a free-trade pact with the U.S. they say will be harmful to local businesses.
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The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is rallying for free trade agreements during its huge&#160;Consumer Electronics Show&#160;this week, saying barrier-free trade with other countries is crucial to the growth of U.S. jobs.Support for free trade isn&#39;t as strong in Washington, D.C., as it has been in past years, with several presidential candidates expressing concerns about free trade agreements, Gary Shapiro, the group&#39;s chief executive, said at a CES press conference on Monday.Free trade is &quot;something we&#39;ve taken for granted as an industry,&quot; Shapiro said. &quot;For the first time in my career, I am concerned about the future of free trade ... primarily because in Congress, on television, and with some of our presidential candidates, free trade is not a given.&quot;Shapiro, who has given his personal support to Republican Mitt Romney&#39;s presidential campaign, declined to single out presidential candidates who he saw as antitrade, but leading Democrats Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama have all expressed concerns about free trade agreements, often because of environmental concerns. Mike Huckabee, winner of the Iowa presidential caucuses on the Republican side, said in an October debate that the U.S. doesn&#39;t have fair trade with other countries because &quot;an American company is having to pay an extraordinarily high tax on everything they produce, but the countries who are exporting to us don&#39;t have the same border adjustability that we do.&quot;But Shapiro and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said Monday that free trade agreements are critically important to the consumer electronics and IT industries.&quot;This is real money for real people in the United States,&quot; Schwab said during the CEA press conference from Las Vegas. &quot;If there were ever a sector of the economy, if there were ever an industry, where you see the very, very clear converging of the benefits of free trade, of free markets and of the protection of intellectual property, this is it.&quot;Shapiro and Schwab called on Congress to approve free trade agreements that are pending with Columbia, Panama and South Korea. Including a trade agreement with Peru approved by Congress in December, those four countries represent about 124 million consumers, Schwab said.One reporter asked why U.S. residents should support free trade when they see friends or relatives losing jobs to workers in other countries, imported toys containing chemicals that harm children, or pet food that kills dogs and cats.Free trade can cause problems for a small number of workers, but many more U.S. workers have jobs because of free trade, Shapiro said. Free markets have &quot;temporary dislocations,&quot; but in the long term, countries cannot protect individual jobs in a global economy, he said. &quot;A great country doesn&#39;t put up walls,&quot; Shapiro added.Schwab said her office is working hard to crack down on imports of dangerous products. &quot;Our responsibility as a government is, first and foremost, the health and safety of our citizens,&quot; she said.
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BRASILIA/BRUSSELS  - European Union and Mercosurofficials criticized each other's trade proposals on Thursday,making an Oct. 31 deadline to create a transatlantic free tradearea appear increasingly unrealistic.
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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner in the U.S. presidential race, said on Saturday she would oppose ratification of a free trade pact with South Korea because it would harm the U.S. auto industry, among other things.
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Tens of thousands of South Koreans take to the streets to oppose a free trade agreement with the US.
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PARIS Aircraft maker Airbus is attacking a US decision to file a World Trade Organization complaint over subsidies Airbus. Airbus today says the US complaint shows that Washington is unwilling to negotiate
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The Consumer Electronics Association is rallying for free trade agreements during CES, saying barrier-free trade with other countries is crucial to the growth of U.S. jobs.
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Efforts to forge the world&#39;s largest free trade zone, uniting the European Union with the Mercosur South American economic bloc, face tough negotiations after a new EU offer received a frosty reception from across the Atlantic.
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The world&#39;s largest free trade area was meant to open across 34 nations of the Americas on Jan. 1, 2005. The only visible sign of it in Latin America in the final days of 2004 is anti-US graffiti sprayed on city walls.
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The World Trade Organization imposed penalties Friday on U.S. exports ranging from apples to textiles, escalating a trade dispute the Bush administration has struggled to defuse by unsuccessfully urging Congress to repeal legislation aimed at protecting American steelmakers.
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The European Union files a complaint with the WTO against import tariffs imposed by China on car parts.