General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTPP: Keeping a Massive Trade Deal Out of the Fast Lane
One thing members of Congress probably arent hearing about from their constituents during the August recess is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the most significant international trade agreement underway in decades. The nineteenth round of talks began yesterday in Brunei, with negotiations reportedly in the end game.
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As the story goes, access to new overseas markets will boost exports, decreasing our trade deficit and reviving the US manufacturing sector. But freer trade isnt a jobs policy. Those who say these deals are going to create thousands of jobs and increase exports, they dont talk about importswhich are just as important, if not more so, said Robert Scott of the Economic Policy Institute. According to his analysis, in the year after Obamas recent agreement with South Korea was finalized, US exports fell, South Korean imports rose and the US trade deficit to South Korea increased by nearly 40 percent, costing some 40,000 jobs. The TPP could worsen income inequality, too.
Significant as its economic impact could be, the TPP is only marginally about trade. Just five of the twenty-nine draft chapters cover traditional trade matters, according to Ben Beachy, the research director for Public Citizens Global Trade Watch. The rest of the deal, he said, could rewrite broad swathes of domestic policy that affects our daily lives, from Internet browsing to what we eat for dinner.
For corporations, the TPP is a convenient back-door means of undermining public interest policies that they oppose but are not able to undermine through domestic legislation, Beachy said. If enacted, all existing and future US law would have to comply with the treaty, or the US could face trade sanctions. Environmental, health, food safety, human rights and Internet freedom protections could all be limited by the TPP. The deal could derail attempts to rein in Wall Street, making it impossible to regulate risky financial products, implement a Robin Hood tax on financial transactions or enforce size limits on big banks and capital controls.
Corporations, meanwhile, would gain vastly expanded privileges over federal, state and local government. A draft chapter leaked last year detailed the inclusion of a legal structure, called an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, that would essentially allow multinationals to sue a government if they believe a policy infringes on their rights. A tribunal unaccountable to any electorate would decide the case and the damages owed, with no option for appeal. Similar investor-state rules have been included in a number of other free-trade deals, including NAFTA, and cases are surging, as are the damages awarded. Last year corporations won 70 percent of disputes.
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http://www.thenation.com/blog/175865/keeping-massive-trade-deal-out-fast-lane#
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)wait until they start the real push for the TPA
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts).
Other Resources
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (your go-to handout for meetings, tabling, etc.)
TPP Organizers Toolkit (more detailed talking points, outreach pointers and more)
Tell Congress: No Fast Track for the TPP (easy online action)
Write a Letter to the Editor (another easy online action)
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Fast Track & the TPP Fact Sheet
TPP & Public Health Fact Sheet
TPP & Environment Fact Sheet
TPP & Wall Street Fact Sheet
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ExposetheTPP.org (fact sheets and more)
#TPPTuesday Social Media Action Team
The Insider List of Cleared TPP Advisors (Sojourners article w/ Excel spreadsheet link)
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New York Times: Obamas Covert Trade Deal
Huffington Post: Congress Shouldnt Outsource Its Trade Negotiating Authority
AFL-CIO Executive Committee Statement
CWA TPP Action Page
Doctors Without Borders Briefing Paper
Sierra Club TPP Activist Toolkit
Friends of the Earth Peril in the Pacific Video
Presbyterian Church USA Trade Toolkit (includes posters)
The 2013 Public Banking Conference Handout
TPPxBorder Tri-National Unity Statement
Backbone Campaign TPP Action Camp (June 2013)
FlushtheTPP.org
Here are links:
http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2013/06/04/activists-start-here-the-tpp-fast-track-organizers-toolkit/