I just picked this link up off another web site. I can't attest for its accuracy but but I'm placing it here for confirmation or denial.
Apparently the democratic "leadership" headed by Charles Rangel (D-NY) is trying to ram secret Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Columbia, Panama, South Korea and Peru, through congress. Some of the trade agreements are apparently benign (then whey are they secret?) but the one with Panama caught someones attention.
Economist and investment/globalization specialist Peter Riggs of the Tax Justice Network, which describes itself as an outfit devoted to "combating tax evasion by corporations and the rich", took a good long look at the Panama trade deal. After noting that the Panama and Peru deals have been considered "relatively non-controversial and will probably pass", he explains that the deal with Panama has nothing to do with trade
www.taxjustice-usa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=119
Panama has two major areas of "economic comparative advantage" in the region. One, obviously, is the Canal. But the other is much more insidious-and major U.S. corporations are hoping that no one draws any attention to it.
Panama’s other economic comparative advantages are in the area of tax and banking secrecy, and the ease with which U.S. companies can create subsidiaries in Panama for purposes of dodging taxes.
Panama is already home to a lot of U.S. corporate subsidiaries. How many? Tens of thousands of U.S. corporations have hung out a shingle-or should we say, set up an email box-in that country.
W]ith the text of the Free Trade Agreement as it now stands, Panamanian investors would get new rights in the United States, with no new disclosure responsibilities at home. We have a situation where it is very, very easy to set up a business subsidiary in Panama. Panama’s "corporate" specialists advertise the country has having the most favorable and flexible incorporation laws in the world, in addition to some of the strictest banking secrecy laws available.
So the FTA will just encourage more U.S. businesses to pursue a strategy for tax purposes, designed solely to evade taxes in the United States. But then the text of the Panama agreement allows corporations and investors with a "substantial business presence" in Panama-that is, registered subsidiaries of multinational corporations-to use provisions found in Chapter 10 of the agreement to bring a claim against U.S. laws using an international investor tribunal. Panamanian-registered corporations would be able to bypass the U.S. courts system altogether in the case of an investment dispute involving the United States.
Liberals and progressives have complained for years that deals like this allow "American" corporations to legally rip off the public treasury without requiring them to return anything of equal value back to the American Public. This is an all for them and none for us proposition that is funded with our tax dollars.
One would think that the democrats at least would be trying to prevent this kind of bullshit but no so.
Charlie Rangel has a long and distinguished history in the House, but his overt advocacy for and determination to pass the FTA is putting a blot on his reputation he’ll be hard-put to erase. He has publicly announced that he intends to see the FTA passed whether the rank-and-file like it or not, and that he will ram it through over their objections and the objections of its progressive opponents no matter what.
If this is true it seems as if certain democratic congressmen are clearly no better than their Republican counterparts.
It's also a stark reminder that unless we keep an eye on our democratic congressmen that they too will be swayed by the money and power of corporate America.