White House argues trade will help environment

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: The Hill

The White House on Wednesday released a report detailing its efforts to protect the global environment through trade agreements as President Obama tries to build support on Capitol Hill for his ambitious agenda.

The 64-page report is the latest in a series of attempts by the Obama administration to detail how far-reaching trade agreements can improve the enforcement of global rules, a major concern of congressional lawmakers wary of signing off on the trade agenda.

Specifically, it argues that trade pacts can combat a broad range of global environmental concerns including wildlife trafficking as well as illegal logging and fishing.

The Obama administration argues that once implemented, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement “will help protect one of the most ecologically and economically significant regions of the world — from the deserts and plains of Australia, to the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam, to the Andes mountains of Peru,” the report said.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/242636-white-house-argues-trade-will-help-environment

[4139]

1. TPP is Cake and Icecream :)

[FreakinDJ]

2. The Lies just get Bigger and Bigger

[libdem4life]

3. And the Fairies that bring us our hot chocolate or coffee in the morning, will get benefits and a

raise in pay.

[djean111]

4. And a chicken in every pot. But none of your damned business where that chicken came from,

and, yeah, sometimes China uses lead when making toys and dishes so - none of your business where that pot came from, either.

[Phlem]

5. Even when pushing the TPP there is still

no discussion or mention about jobs and economics for the working class. It's like for his whole entire presidency, he's avoided discussing that in detail. A mention here and there then look everybody, free education, or whatever distraction he wants to throw in. Anything but talking about the economy, living wage jobs, and the working class.

Masterful.

[Jesus Malverde]

6. From the article...

“Multinational corporations, including some of the planet's biggest polluters, could use the TPP to sue governments in private trade tribunals, over laws and policies that they claimed would reduce their profits,” said Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune wrote in a recent blog post.

TPP #Fail

[raindaddy]

7. It's total hypocrisy for Obama to keep telling us that corporate lobbyists that make their living

screwing labor and avoiding environmental regulations suddenly decided to become environmentalists and labor leaders.

[Lagom]

8. Environmental TPP Chapter Leaked: Weaker Than Previous Agreements

https://wikileaks.org/tpp-enviro/pressrelease.html

When compared against other TPP chapters, the Environment Chapter is noteworthy for its absence of mandated clauses or meaningful enforcement measures. The dispute settlement mechanisms it creates are cooperative instead of binding; there are no required penalties and no proposed criminal sanctions. With the exception of fisheries, trade in 'environmental' goods and the disputed inclusion of other multilateral agreements, the Chapter appears to function as a public relations exercise.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks' publisher, stated: "Today's WikiLeaks release shows that the public sweetner in the TPP is just media sugar water. The fabled TPP environmental chapter turns out to be a toothless public relations exercise with no enforcement mechanism."

Green Groups: Leaked Trans-Pacific Partnership Environment Chapter Unacceptable

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2014/140115.asp

“If the environment chapter is finalized as written in this leaked document, President Obama’s environmental trade record would be worse than George W. Bush’s,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “This draft chapter falls flat on every single one of our issues - oceans, fish, wildlife, and forest protections - and in fact, rolls back on the progress made in past free trade pacts.”

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Deeply Flawed Partnership

http://japanfocus.org/-Mel-Gurtov/4318/article.html

Administration claims to the contrary, TPP will export far more jobs than it will create. It will encourage countries to further weaken their currencies’ value to promote exports to the US, thus widening the US trade deficit and reducing US jobs. At the same time, TPP will encourage US companies to invest abroad, and thus create jobs there, as happened under NAFTA.

snip

By shifting jobs to low-wage countries, TPP will further undermine attempts by US workers to unionize. The threat by companies to move from one low-wage country to an even lower-wage country is always there.

No provision is made to protect workers sidelined by the effects of the agreement. As Dana Milbank points out in the Washington Post, President Obama lost an opportunity when the TPP was being drafted to insert provisions for worker training and spending on public works (“infrastructure”), both areas that the US spends far less on than the Europeans.

snip

TPP will undermine environmental, health, and safety laws because, as with the infamous Chapter 11 of NAFTA, TPP will allow countries and corporations that are blocked by regulations in another country from exporting certain below-standard goods—such as fish, fuel, timber, tobacco, and fruit—to sue in a special international court of arbitrators for financial redress on the basis of “restraint of trade.” Under the TPP, the special court’s ruling cannot be challenged in US courts. This crucial provision, called Investor-State Dispute Settlement, reduces environmental and public-health protections to the least common denominator. The special court operates in secret. Its decisions are binding on governments, and prevail over local laws and regulations.

[Old Codger]

9. For me

I really don't believe anything that comes out of any politicians mouth including Obama.. When TPP becomes something that benefits our countries working class as much as others and it is posted on line in it's entirety and becomes available to all for open debate it should go the route of the stuff I use every morning in one of my bathroom rituals..

[CharlotteVale]

10. Puhleeze.

[Cirque du So-What]

11. Is there nothing TPP cannot cure?

Neuritis? Neuralgia? Cough due to cold? Even the heartbreak of psoriasis?

[FiveGoodMen]

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[sakabatou]

12. Bullshit!

[Populist_Prole]

13. They're running out of sticky shit to throw against a wall ( edit )

Infuriating as to how bold they've become in their attempt to spin, it does show that they realize the public sentiment against the TPP is resonating; so much so that now it's beyond their ability to contain it ( damage control ) as point after point is made against it. They've dropped the other points like hot potatoes in their desperation to find one for everybody. Come to think of it, it sounds weird: Using triangulation within a bloc to wedge them apart.

Sorry coporatists. We aint buying it.

[frylock]

14. It will your improve your sex life

[PSPS]

15. Give it a rest, Obama. Nobody believes you anymore.

[sadoldgirl]

16. And the US government will enforce these

non-mandated conditions just as it has done
with the Unions in Colombia. Sure!!

[d_legendary1]

17. Yeah sure.

Instead of dumping toxic waste in our rivers and land fills we get to dump them in some third world shithole so their people can deal with it. Or we can add Benzine into our gasoline since disposing of it is costly. Genius!

[840high]

18. Total BS

[swilton]

19. Raise the BS flag

[americannightmare]

21. I was hoping I would never see the day...

when Dems were using Newspeak-like language just as rethugs do. But if there is anything that will absolutely, positively NOT help the environment, it is more global trade. Naomi Klein's meticulous research for "This Changes Everything" explains this succinctly.

[MFrohike]

22. Hmm

Wasn't that part of the rationale for normalizing trade with China? That sure worked great.

[Nihil]

23. More lying bullshit from Obama - the billionaire's friend.

That charlatan still pretends that the TPP will *raise* standards rather than allowing
his corporate masters from using all the power the USA can summon in order to accelerate
the race to the bottom.