Obama trade policy to require stricter provisions on labor and environmental standards

There he goes again. Barack Obama is following through with another campaign promise. This one is on U.S. trade policy and it is a very big change from the policy of George Bush and Dick Cheney:

During the campaign, Obama said he generally supports free-trade policies but also signaled a tougher approach that is only now beginning to be outlined. Both in Kirk's testimony yesterday and in a policy statement issued by new Obama appointees at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the administration vowed to make tougher labor and environmental standards prerequisites for trade deals. Rather than stressing the signing of new agreements, the administration indicated that it will instead prioritize stricter enforcement of existing ones before the World Trade Organization -- the Geneva-based body that arbitrates global trade.

In what appeared to be a jab at the Bush administration's zealous pursuit of free-trade agreements, Kirk, a former mayor of Dallas, said: "I do not come to this job . . . with deal fever. We're not going to do deals just for doing so."

The administration, he said, is conducting a review of trade agreements signed by the previous administration with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. He said outright that the deal with South Korea, as currently written, "is simply unfair." He added that "we are prepared to step away from that" if it is not reworked.

The new administration policy statement, released by the trade representative's office last week, said Obama would seek new benchmarks for the passage of the agreements with South Korea and Colombia. South Korea has come under fire for its hurdles for U.S. automakers, while U.S. unions have said Colombia has not done enough to combat violence against labor leaders there. Though Kirk declined to detail what those benchmarks may be, analysts have suggested that they might involve, for instance, a U.S. insistence that murders of union leaders be sharply reduced in Colombia before lending support to the deal.

The trade representative's office also stated that trade policy must now contain a new element of "social accountability," including on issues such as climate change. "We should aim to make trade a part of the tool kit of solutions for addressing international environmental challenges," the statement said.

Imagine that. Factoring in the human cost to trade deals. And, expecting other nations to do their part to protect workers and the environment. What concepts. Why, that's almost, what's the word I'm thinking of here....it's almost moral. That, of course, means Republicans will vociferously oppose these changes.