The 90 days War for Trade

So, the war of lobbies is gonna be on for 90 days, willing to aproove the US-Colombia trade pact. Bush decided tu use de "fast track", that is surprising. He faces no political risk, so decided to go for it. Se, trade is just one tiny part of the story. Newspapers focus on thing like how it will benefit labour intensive industries like Caterpillar, and others. Or that the farmers are affraid of it. Ok, so they know how to manage themselves to get his message heard in the Congress. Cat has it lobbyists, and the farmers have their powerful organizations. Cool. The things they do not name is that so-called free trade agreement is not only about trade, but about intelectual property, investments, etc.
IP issues such as patents, trademarks, etc, are not a natural byproduct of free trade. They represent the opposite of Smith´s dreams. A patent is a legal monopoly to use and commercialize an innovative product or process. Yeah, it restricts the freedom of others to use or trade something. That happens with IP rights on use of vegetable species to heal, so big pharma is deeply interested in getting the agreement complete. Well, I am not going to bore you anymore. Check this video from the Wall Street Journal.

Politico.com: More clintonian free traders lobbyists....

Mark Penn isn’t the only Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter on the wrong side of the Colombia trade agreement.

The Democratic-leaning advocacy firm the Glover Park Group, former home to Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson, signed a $40,000 per month contract with the government of Colombia in April of 2007 to promote the very agreement that Clinton now rails against on the presidential campaign trail.

That means Glover Park Group was arguing the same position as Penn's firm. The contentious Clinton strategist and Burson-Marsteller chief executive lost his campaign job over the weekend after The Wall Street Journal revealed that he’d met with Colombian officials to plot strategy on the pact.

Several other Glover Park employees have deep connections with the Clintons, including founding partner Joe Lockhart, who served as the White House press secretary under President Bill Clinton, and Joel Johnson, who was a senior communications adviser in the Clinton White House. Read more

The Clintonian Free Trader Lobbyist

So, Ms Clinton is opposed to the signing of any more free trade agreement. She has told everybody that story. All right with that. However, her main campaign advisor seems to think different. Mark Penn, the advisor, is lobbying on behalf the government of Colombia to get the bilateral trade agreement approved in the Senate. He is doing that because he works for Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, one of the most important lobbying firms in the world, hired ussually by countries to lobby such things as international agreements, financial aid, etc. in Washington.

There is nothing wrong at first glance. Mr Penn works for that firm, that ok. He also advises Hillary on PR, great!. But what the hell was he thinking when he accepted to have a meeting with the colombian govenmental agents. The fees charged to Colombia must be so high that he did not care about the conquence of his action.
Do you know how much does it cost to invite senators expensive meals, trips, gifts an all those luxurious things that tend to awake their best democratic rationale? Apparently, most journalist do not. Othewise, they would not charge against him because of this. Penn has a lot of mouths to feed (his own family, lawmakers, and lawmaker´s families). It is not easy to be a guardian of good policy-making.

Poor Mark, this is not a time nor a place for heroes like you....... Check out the story in the The Wall Street Journal.