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They're Fast-Tracking the Future, TPP Style, but We Can Stop Them
The "TPP," or Trans-Pacific Partnership, is our nation's newest proposed trade deal. It was negotiated without democratic input, and they're trying to ram it through Congress the same way. Like NAFTA before it, the TPP would kill jobs. It would also cause lasting harm to democracy, here in the United States and around the world.
There has been an understandable sense of outrage over the Obama administration's attempt to ram the most extreme trade deal yet through Congress with a "fast-track" provision that forbids amendments or filibustering. Representatives who have had very little chance to review the bill will be expected to vote on it without the chance to change it.
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But why is the U.S. so sharply out of alignment with the other countries negotiating this treaty? Probably because it's the nominal home of some of the world's largest corporations. (They're "nominally" American because, although they're typically run by Americans, they tend to employ most of their workforces and pay their taxes – if at all in – other nations.)
The U.S. negotiators' hard-line positions conform closely to the interests of these nominally American corporations. Whether it's Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, tech, Hollywood, major polluters like the oil companies, or risk-taking financial institutions on Wall Street, the American negotiators have been fighting for their interests – while disregarding the interests of the taxpayers who pay their salaries.
more at http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/21447-theyre-fast-tracking-the-future-tpp-style-but-we-can-stop-them
There has been an understandable sense of outrage over the Obama administration's attempt to ram the most extreme trade deal yet through Congress with a "fast-track" provision that forbids amendments or filibustering. Representatives who have had very little chance to review the bill will be expected to vote on it without the chance to change it.
*****
But why is the U.S. so sharply out of alignment with the other countries negotiating this treaty? Probably because it's the nominal home of some of the world's largest corporations. (They're "nominally" American because, although they're typically run by Americans, they tend to employ most of their workforces and pay their taxes – if at all in – other nations.)
The U.S. negotiators' hard-line positions conform closely to the interests of these nominally American corporations. Whether it's Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, tech, Hollywood, major polluters like the oil companies, or risk-taking financial institutions on Wall Street, the American negotiators have been fighting for their interests – while disregarding the interests of the taxpayers who pay their salaries.
more at http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/21447-theyre-fast-tracking-the-future-tpp-style-but-we-can-stop-them
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