CTH has called out the anti-American economic positions of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for many years. The U.S. CoC is the largest DC lobbying group for multinational corporations and multinational financial interests. The CoC is at the very epicenter of the financial constructs that support the Washington DC UniParty.

When President Trump won the election in 2016 it was a thundershock to decades of work by the U.S. CoC to undermine economic nationalism in favor of global corporate interests. Within all of the economic, trade and policy discussion which subsequently flowed from the White House the CoC did not have a seat at the table. Trump’s economic policy is adverse to the interests of The Big Club.

Today the CoC is taking a direct and adversarial position to oppose the White House and the intended framework (Trump, Ross, Lighthizer) for a renegotiated NAFTA deal. The U.S. CoC is aligning with Canada and Mexico against the interests of the United States.

While predicted, it is a little surreal to see the U.S. CoC drop their mask so openly:

WASHINGTON DC – The Chamber of Commerce warned Friday that the Trump administration appears to be on the path to pulling out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, on the eve of the fourth round of talks to renegotiate that deal.

“Today we are increasingly concerned with the state of play with the negotiations,” John Murphy, the chamber’s senior vice president for international policy, told reporters Friday. He said the administration’s continued pursuit of a sunset clause for NAFTA and its push to favor U.S. companies for government contracts, over those from Canada and Mexico, was alarming the business community. “The vast majority of business groups oppose these provisions emphatically,” Murphy said, adding that Canada and Mexico, the other countries in the deal, were not inclined to support them either. “The concern is that leading with these proposals could lead to a chaotic breakdown in the talks.” That could lead the Trump administration to pull out of the deal entirely, he warned. President Trump has repeatedly made that threat in the past if the administration does not get what it wants out of the talks. “There is an old adage in negotiations: Never take a hostage you wouldn’t shoot,” Murphy said. He urged the administration to pull back and “recalibrate” on the talks. The comments were a stark break from protocol for the Chamber, the nation’s leading business lobby, which is rarely so publicly critical of an administration on trade matters. Murphy was stumped when asked a by a reporter of a previous instance of the Chamber opposing the White House in this manner. The next round of talks open next week in Washington, D.C. (read more)

Think about this quote carefully:

[…] “He said the administration’s continued pursuit of a sunset clause for NAFTA and its push to favor U.S. companies for government contracts, over those from Canada and Mexico, was alarming the business community.”…

The Trump administration favoring U.S. companies for U.S. government contracts is alarming to the U.S. CoC business community. Think about that.