Reprinted from Campaign For America's Future
ALL HANDS ON DECK. This is not a drill. The vote in the House of Representatives on fast track trade authority, pre-approving the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) before the public finds out what is in it, is coming up very soon. It is even possible it could happen later this week. The Senate has already passed fast track; if the House passes this it goes to President Obama and he will sign it. That will make TPP a done deal.
Fast track is a weird procedure, invented by President Richard Nixon, whereby Congress sets aside the normal procedures for considering, debating and voting on a bill -- but only for so-called "trade" agreements. Under fast track Congress agrees to rush the agreement through with little debate, agrees not to make any amendments, and not to filibuster it. (How else could they get approval for deals that allow companies to ship jobs and factories out of the country to places where workers and the environment are not protected?)
We don't know much about the contents of TPP -- a secret investor/corporate rights agreement negotiated by corporate representatives with labor, environment and other "stakeholders" kept away from the negotiations -- but we do know Nike wants it because it will lower tariffs on the shoes they import from Vietnam. We also know that the lowered tariff will mean New Balance may stop making shoes inside the U.S. We know that it opens up Vietnam, which pays workers less than a dollar an hour, for even more "outsourcing" of American jobs. We know that it lets corporations sue governments in "corporate courts" if they think laws and regulations might hurt their profits. (It even lets tobacco companies sue governments for trying to help citizens quit smoking, because that lowers tobacco company profits.)
Passing fast track will mean that the TPP is most likely a done deal when it comes before Congress, even though it is still secret from the public at the time they vote to fast-track it. It also means that an upcoming "trade" deal with Europe will likely go through, whenever that happens. And on top of those, it means that future "trade" deals that we don't even know of yet will likely be approved -- even if they are set up to gut our own banking regulations.
The problem here is that these deals are put together using a rigged negotiating process. Our trade negotiators tend to come out of giant, multinational corporations -- particularly from Wall Street -- and tend to return to them. The 600 "advisers" on the TPP are dominated by corporate representatives. Not only does this set up a corporate-favoring (therefore labor-/environmentalist-hating) mindset within the agency, it also creates an understanding that participants should "play ball" and not make waves against corporate interests if they want to obtain a lucrative corporate position after leaving government. The inevitable result is agreements that rig the game in favor of the interests of the giant, multinational corporations and their investors over the interests of the rest of us -- and our government.
And then Congress "greases the skids" with the rigged fast track process to get these deals passed outside of the opportunity for the public to stop them.
There is a reason that Wall Street, giant multinational corporations, the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the Republican Party leadership and all the other anti-worker lobbying representatives of giant corporations and billionaires are for TPP -- and all of the labor unions, progressives, Democrats (except a few who hope to be lobbyists later), citizen groups, consumer groups, internet freedom, health groups, LGBT groups, food-safety groups, environmental groups and so many others oppose it.
Put it this way: Do you think giant, multinational corporations want working people everywhere to be paid more or less? Do you think they want to increase environmental protections or weaken them? Do you think they want to increase government's power to reign them in and protect citizens or weaken it? You get the picture.
We Can Win
It's not often these days that We the People can beat back the forces of big money -- but it can happen. For example, We the People have managed to score major victories on lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender rights. We the People rallied and beat back recent attempts to cut Social Security. We the People have been bypassing Congress and passing minimum wage hikes in cities and states. These are just a few recent examples.
We the People can win if we set our minds to it, and organize and make our voices heard.
People are solidly against more "trade" deals that send jobs out of the country and increase corporate power. A recent Pew poll was reported as showing that people favor trade deals if they create jobs, but the poll also looked at how people see the NAFTA-style trade deals we have. Public Citizen took a look at that poll and reports:
-- 46 percent said that free trade agreements "lead to job losses," while only 17 percent said they "create jobs."
-- 46 percent said that free trade agreements "make the wages of American workers" lower, while only 11 percent said they make wages higher.
-- 34 percent said that free trade agreements actually "slow the economy down" and 25 percent said they do "not make a difference" for economic growth, while only 31 percent said they "make the economy grow."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
