Those who know about the Trans Pacific Partnership are becoming desperate about stopping it. Last week was supposedly the week that the TPP was to be finished. With so much bickering from the 12 countries, that did not happen. The negotiators are planning to meet again in a couple of weeks to try and wrap it up. Not to mention the fact that hundreds of protesters in Lahaina, Hawaii--where the negotiations are being held--stood outside on the beach blowing conch shells.
How is this a sign of desperation? Because they found a way to announce their opposition to the world. Their protesting actually broke a World Guinness Record, which will be published in next year's book. Their opposition will go down in history!
Words like "it's pilau" were being shouted by the crowd which means rotten in Hawaiian. Even a former agriculture minister from Japan participated in the protest, claiming that he has been trying to stop the TPP for the past five years. He took initiative and led the crowd to chant "Stop TPP" in Japanese.
No one wants the TPP. Actually, no real person wants it. Only multinational corporations truly want the TPP to pass. However they don't want the public to know that.
These multinationals hide behind names such as the U.S. Business Coalition for TPP, Trade Benefits America Coalition, and The Progressive Coalition for American Jobs. Those names sound so nice and all, but go look at their members. Huge multinational corporations. However, if people don't dig deeper into who is behind these "non-profit coalitions" then people will never know who really is behind this all.
The truth of the matter is that this these multinationals are pushing the TPP in order to outsource American jobs just to save a buck. They will outsource jobs in order to save on production and labor costs. The federal minimum wage in America is $7.25 per hour, which is roughly $267.80 a week. Compare that to Malaysia's minimum wage at $297 a month. The average annual wage for an an engineer in the U.S. is $87,140, but in Malaysia it's $23,484. The average annual wage for an accountant in the U.S. is $73,670; in Malaysia it's $16,263. The average annual factory-worker salary in the U.S. is $36,000; in Malaysia it's $19,308.
We can clearly see the huge difference is labor costs between the U.S. and one of the trading partners in the TPP. That isn't mentioning Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, Peru, and Chile, which also have low wages in comparison to the U.S. So how exactly is this going to be "good" for America and American jobs? It's not.
We must stand up against these multinationals who are trying to change the laws and rules of our country. It is supposed to be "We the People", not "We the Businesses."