The Secret TPP: Furthering Corporate Takeover of the Globe

[T]he Trans Pacific Partnership trade pact [...] isn’t just a trade agreement. It slays safety regulations and labor protections, curtails communication freedoms, and re-writes domestic laws of the participating countries. It’s been called a mass assault on democracy and the biggest, most sinister corporate power grab yet.

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All the negotiations, since 2008, have been going on behind thick closed doors.

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[A]ccording to Kevin Reese, co-director of popularresistance.org [remember Margaret Flowers on Bill Moyers?], it gives major corporations unprecedented power.

Just this month (Sept.), the President pressured Congress to grant him extra-constitutional authority, known as “Fast Track,” to complete the TPP without congressional scrutiny.

“Fast Track” would have Congress voting up or down on the massive document without any power to discuss or amend any of it.

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[Public Citizen’s Lori Wallach] suggests all of us contact our Congressmen and Senators and urge them not to abrogate their authority over trade. So does the Green Shadow Cabinet [remember Margaret Flowers on Bill Moyers?].

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A Google alert on the topic for the past three or four months has shown most reports are coming from the foreign press and obscure websites, with some exceptions.

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People must do their own research on this because the major media outlets aren’t taking it on.

  Disinfo

Why would they? They might lose “access” to the White House.  Not to mention, they are owned by major corporations.

TPP will vaporize any law that interferes with making money. You might want to label the country of origin of a food item, for instance. Some Canadian beef got mad cow? No matter. They won’t label it Canadian. That would cut into the exporter’s profits. GMO? That would be discrimination. You prefer not to have your medicine from a Chinese factory. You won’t be able to know. Food and medicine that would formerly be blocked for not meeting our standards will have a red carpet.

Obama originally wanted to exempt tobacco regulations. Keep the warning labels. That has mostly gone by the wayside. Nations can now argue about tobacco regulations that hamper sales.

For a second, I wondered why he wanted to exempt tobacco.  Then I realized, the tobacco lobby has been reduced to impotency in the United States already, so Obama had nothing to lose by that stance, and something to gain by APPEARING to care.

Doctors Without Borders has heard of TPP. Its members are doing the best they can to protest the plan. It promises to keep patents on medicines longer, which would make it harder to provide affordable drugs for impoverished countries and peoples.

One Michigan Congressman is working for a “Buy Local” law. It won’t be enforceable. That would be discrimination against the far off producer under the TPP.

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TPP is designed to allow major corporations to dominate business, which will hurt smaller countries most. And, he said, countries with laudable health care plans, like Japan, Australia and New Zealand, will be hard pressed to protect those plans. The TPP will ensure health care as a commodity.

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Wallach pointed out that, in the latest round of negotiations, pressure is mounting for easy visas for workers to come to the U.S. This will further deflate wages for American workers. Jobs won’t have to be sent abroad for cheap labor – the cheap labor will come to the jobs.

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[Rep. Alan] Grayson said,

“I can’t tell you what’s in the agreement because the U.S. Trade Representative calls it classified. But I can tell you two things about it:

1) There is no national security purpose in keeping this text secret.

2) This agreement hands the sovereignty of our country over to corporate interests.

3) What they can’t afford to tell the American public is that [the rest of this sentence is classified].

I will be fighting this agreement with everything I’ve got. And I know you’ll be there every step of the way. For now, I’ve set up an e-mail address where you can ask me questions on this topic or other topics: askalan@graysonforcongress.com”

Disputes under this pact won’t go to court. TPP people have got that rigged, too. The TPP creates an international tribunal. Its judges will be the lawyers and CEOS who wrote the TPP. Everyone gets screwed– except the corporations and those people working for them.

Such a deal.

Also check out the Green Shadow Cabinet article on TPP here. And Flush the TPP here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.