Note: If you should decide to read any further, I'd like you to know that you will be reading a fantasy. Since our fascists overlords will never allow any proposal that I'm about to put forward to become law, all of what I'm about to relate is just a pipe dream.
I guess
that it was a few years ago that I first heard of the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP). When I tried to look into it, I was surprised to
find that it was all a closely guarded secret. The standard cop
phrase, "Move along, nothing to see here." flashed into memory
and I shelved the issue.
Then, more
recently, Wikileaks got hold of and published some of the secret text
and I became quite concerned and the more I dug into what little
information was available, the more alarmed I became. Lately, TPP
has become a major issue and it has even created a split in some of
the Democratic Party, with Obama peddling his support for it.
Rather than
dig into all of the various issues surrounding what little is known
of this proposal, I'd like to present what Wikipedia has collected
from a number of experts, all of whom I respect:
In
2013, Joseph
Stiglitz ,
a Keynesian
economist ,
warned that the TPP presented "grave risks" and "serves
the interests of the wealthiest."
Organized
labour in the US argued that the trade deal would largely benefit
corporations at the expense of workers in the manufacturing and
service industries.
The
Economic
Policy Institute
and the Center
for Economic and Policy Research
argued that the TPP could result in further job losses and declining
wages.
In
December 2013, 151 House Democrats signed a letter written by Rosa
DeLauro
( D - CT )
and George
Miller
(D- CA ),
which opposed the fast
track
trade promotion authority for the TPP. Several House Republicans
opposed the measure on the grounds that it empowered the executive
branch. In January 2014, House Democrats refused to put forward a
co-sponsor for the legislation, hampering the bill's prospects for
passage.
In
2014, Noam
Chomsky
warned that the TPP is "designed to carry forward the neoliberal
project to maximize profit and domination, and to set the working
people in the world in competition with one another so as to lower
wages to increase insecurity."
Senator
Bernie
Sanders
( I - VT ),
who opposes fast track, stated that trade agreements like the TPP
"have ended up devastating working families and enriching large
corporations."
Economist
Paul
Krugman
reported, "... I'll be undismayed and even a bit relieved if the
T.P.P. just fades away," and said that "... there isn't a
compelling case for this deal, from either a global or a national
point of view." Krugman also noted the absence of "anything
like a political consensus in favor, abroad or at home."
Economist
Robert
Reich
contends that the TPP is a "Trojan horse in a global race
to the bottom ,
giving big corporations and Wall Street banks a way to eliminate any
and all laws and regulations that get in the way of their profits."
In
a letter to Michael
Froman ,
a US
Trade Representative ,
Senator Bernie
Sanders
wrote:
It
is incomprehensible to me that the leaders of major corporate
interests who stand to gain enormous financial benefits from this
agreement are actively involved in the writing of the TPP while, at
the same time, the elected officials of this country, representing
the American people, have little or no knowledge as to what is in it.
Ilana
Solomon, Sierra
Club 's
director of responsible trade, argued that the TPP "could
directly threaten our climate and our environment [including] new
rights that would be given to corporations, and new constraints on
the fossil fuel industry all have a huge impact on our climate,
water, and land."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
2
1
