Jim Hightower: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Is a Corporate Coup in Disguise

[marmar]

JIM HIGHTOWER ON BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT


What if our national leaders told us that communities across America had to eliminate such local programs as Buy Local, Buy American, Buy Green, etc. to allow foreign corporations to have the right to make the sale on any products purchased with our tax dollars? This nullification of our people's right to direct expenditures is just one of the horror stories in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

This is a super-sized NAFTA, the 1994 trade scam rammed through Congress by the entire corporate establishment. NAFTA promised the "glories of globalization": prosperity across our land. Unfortunately, corporations got the gold. We got the shaft — thousands of factories closed, millions of middle-class jobs went south, and the economies of hundreds of towns and cities were shattered.

Twenty years later, the gang that gave us NAFTA is back with the TPP, a "trade deal" that mostly does not deal with trade. Of the 29 chapters in this document, only five cover traditional trade matters! The other chapters amount to a devilish "partnership" for corporate protectionism:

—Food safety. Any of our government's food safety regulations (on pesticide levels, bacterial contamination, fecal exposure, toxic additives, etc.) and food labeling laws (organic, country-of-origin, animal-welfare approved, GMO-free, etc.) that are stricter than "international standards" could be ruled as "illegal trade barriers." Our government would then have to revise our consumer protections to comply with weaker standards. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18231-jim-hightower-the-trans-pacific-partnership-is-a-corporate-coup-in-disguise

[dgibby]

1. Best explanation of this disaster I've read.

Should be required reading for everyone.

I don't understand why anyone would endorse this atrocity.

On Edit: I don't understand why anyone who professess to have America's best interests at heart would endorse this atrocity.

[snagglepuss]

2. Interesting how the Repuke fiasco over Obamacare is completely overshadowing

this treaty. Very convenient.

[bvar22]

3. DURec... for wider distribution.

EVERYBODY should know about this,
and every American who Works for a Living should OPPOSE it.
This is another issue that should unite DU.

Kick for Jim Hightower!



[font color=firebrick size=4][center]"The only thing in the Middle of the Road
are Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos."--Jim Hightower
[center][/center][/font]

[bvar22]

4. Kick!

...because this is important!

[westerebus]

5. When Nixon and Henry the K opened China there was a question.

The question was how are some poor as dirt farmers going to pay for all the trade we were going to sell them?

The answer was free trade.

That did not answer the question asked.

The next question asked was why are plants closing in this country and opening in China?

The answer was free trade.

That did not answer the question asked.

Which lead to the question how will this work as far as living standards in both countries go?

The answer was free trade.

That did not answer the question.

Currently, there are less jobs here and a declining standard of living.

The question today is why would anyone vote for any party that promotes free trade?

That's the answer to a lot of unanswered questions.

[Enthusiast]

6. Kicked and recommended....nt