John Kerry on TPP: "95 percent of the world’s consumers live beyond the borders of the US"

[ljm2002]

140. I have two issues with Kerry's remarks...

..."95 percent of the world's consumers live beyond the borders of the United States.

(snip)

...And the anger and frustration that has come from that has translated into opposition to trade itself, when the real focus ought to be on the other policy reforms that are necessary to address that concern."

One: Half of that 95% live on incomes that barely sustain them now (*), and they are unlikely to be buying exports from rich countries like our own anytime soon. Implying that 95% of the world are potential consumers of our products is dishonest.

Furthermore, referring to any population as "consumers" is corporate-speak -- a demeaning way of referring to humans as if they exist primarily to be harvested for gain by the grand poobahs of trade, aka multinational corporations. Which of course is exactly how the multinationals see them, and exactly how most of our politicians see them (and us) as well.

Two: that those who oppose trade agreements like the TPP oppose "trade itself". That is also dishonest. I have yet to hear anyone opposing the TPP state that they are "against trade itself", or promoting isolationism. If any are making those arguments, they are in a tiny minority -- but it's easy to argue against those positions, so break out the straw men and full speed ahead, eh?

Kerry claims that the TPP strengthens international labor and environmental standards, yet fails to talk about enforcement mechanisms. Current issues in South America put the lie to effective enforcement w.r.t. labor provisions in existing trade pacts; and allowing Malaysia to be a signatory to the TPP while they turn a blind eye to human trafficking shows us clearly that this is not a priority for the negotiators.

Of course, there are indeed some strong enforcement mechanisms in the TPP: namely, the trade dispute rules, where the incentives heavily favor a race to the bottom in both labor and environmental protections.

(*) https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-global-poverty -- "Nearly 1/2 of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty — less than $1.25 a day."