The TPP: A Quiet Coup for the Investor Class

[limpyhobbler]

It would be a relief to report with any certainty that the negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a massive proposed free-trade zone spanning the Pacific Ocean and all four hemispheres—are definitely empowering corporations to the detriment of workers, the environment, and sovereignty throughout the region. Unfortunately, the secretive and opaque character of the negotiations has made it difficult to report much of anything about them.

What can be confidently reported about the TPP is that, in terms of trade flows, it would be the largest free-trade agreement yet entered into by the United States—and, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, that the ministers negotiating the agreement “have expressed an intent to comprehensively reduce barriers in goods, services, and agricultural trade as well as rules and disciplines on a wide range of topics” to unprecedented levels. Yet despite these grandiose ambitions, details of the negotiations and drafts of the text have been purposefully withheld from Congress and American citizens.

The secrecy surrounding the negotiations is breathtaking. In July, 134 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk requesting that the appropriate congressional committees be consulted and that a draft of the text be released. The members reminded Kirk that draft texts were circulated and congressional committees consulted throughout the NAFTA negotiations in the early 1990s. Their letter received no response. A month later, House members petitioned Kirk to allow a congressional delegation to observe the negotiations—as in the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the launch of the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization, and numerous NAFTA rounds. Despite its persistence, Congress has not been granted any significant oversight or insight regarding the negotiations.

While Congress, the press, and the public have had to make do with leaked chapters of negotiations, Just Foreign Policy reports that 600 corporate lobbyists were granted access to the negotiated text. American democracy is in a sorry state when corporations are granted more access to even the text of sweeping government agreements than the public and its elected officials. Although corporate influence on U.S. trade policy is hardly a new phenomenon, the simultaneous waning of congressional oversight is all the more unsettling...

Read more: http://www.nationofchange.org/tpp-quiet-coup-investor-class-1348926117

[freetrucker53]

1. The Trans Pacific Partnership.

The TPP wasn't mentioned during the debates. It's called NAFTA on steroids. It makes me think conspiracy, like, there are certain things not to be explained or mentioned. A few vague attacks on free trade and China between Obama and Romney and that's it. You would think de industrialization of America would get a few minutes because both Democratic and Republican voters don't like our trade policy the last 30 years and what's led to a lot of our problems. I still have the Obama bumper stickers and have talked more than a few people into voting Democrat, but on some things, there's very little difference between the two parties.

[limpyhobbler]

2. I basically agree with that but

on this trade issue I guess some Democrats are better. At least several Democratic members of the House did send a letter to the administration asking for transparency in the TPP trade talks.
(http://delauro.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=997)

That's just asking to be allowed to know what is being negotiated. Not even asking for any changes.

It should have been in the debates, but what's to debate when the two candidates agree?