Upon
the publication of a complete draft of the Environment Chapter and
the corresponding Chairs' Report by Wikileaks in January 2014, the
Natural
Resources Defense Council
and the World
Wide Fund for Nature
joined with the Sierra Club in criticising the TPP. Julian
Assange
described the Environment Chapter as "a toothless public
relations exercise with no enforcement mechanism."
In
January 2014, The Washington Post's editorial board opined that
congressional sponsors of legislation to expedite approval of the TPP
in the US already included provisions to ensure that all TPP
countries meet international labour and environmental standards, and
that the US "has been made more productive by broader
international competition and more secure by broader international
prosperity".
On
29 January, former US Labor Secretary Robert
Reich
released an illustrating video explaining the TPP. He opposes it on
grounds such as "delaying cheaper generic versions of drugs",
and its provisions for international tribunals that can require
corporations be paid "compensation for any lost profits found to
result from a nation's regulations."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership
Here is what Senator Elizabeth Warren has to say about it:
"We've all seen the tricks and traps that corporations hide in the fine print of contracts. We've all seen the provisions they slip into legislation to rig the game in their favor. Now just imagine what they have done working behind closed doors with TPP."
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From w hat little I could glean, of all that ha s been revealed regarding TPP, it seemed that multiple international corporations were trying to secretly pull a "Fast Track" on the rest of us by disguising some of their old ulterior and nefarious deeds under the guise of equalizing the international trade rules. Along w ith this realization came the memory of a very old idea I had -- going back to the NAFTA/SHAFTA days. I'm now quite certain that w e don't need a baggage laden TPP. A ll we really need is a Fair International Tariff (FIT)!
Here
is a very simplified
example of how it would work:
Imagine
two pairs of shoes. One pair is made in China and the other pair is
made in the US. We devise a formula that takes into account ALL of
the costs to create those shoes in
both countries --
labor, materials, marketing, sales, health insurance, environmental,
pensions, shipping, disposal,
management salaries,
taxes, etc.
We apply those total costs to both pair and affix their calculated
value to each pair with a bar code. Now, whenever products from one
country are shipped to another country, customs reads the bar codes
and calculates an equalizing
import tariff which is
then applied
to the sales price
of the product.
It should be readily apparent the many and vast ramifications such a process would have on so many vital areas of concern, in this critical period of world history. Primarily, the true costs and value of traded goods would become an integral aspect of all of the resources we are currently using to satisfy our craving for "things." More importantly, once common expenses are equalized, any and all true added values will become obvious and the focal point of making purchases and not predicated on price alone. It would, by generating an incredibly powerful data set, certainly allow all of us to have more exact tools to apprise, stabilize and equalize the value of labor expenses , environmental laws and currency exchanges -- which are sorely needed. Additionally, the US could exert controls by requiring that all countries who trade with us (US), would have to abide by our FIT rules.
--
Now, we can all take this concept to heart and pass around this article, talk to friends, organize, write and call our congress members, even demonstrate but I'm telling you -- nothing will happen and you know why. Come on, haven't you figured out that YOU don't have enough money and thus financial influence to bribe enough of the right politicians to make it a reality? Don't you know that we, the masses, have lost control of our government to the 1%, who are quite busy wielding their favorite tool -- the corporation?
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