A longtime friend going back to high school who is also a reader of my blog asked me to weigh in on the negotiations of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, another bad trade deal that will further exploit workers here and around the world for the benefit of only the elites.
“11 countries are involved in the TPP negotiations: Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Brunei, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Japan also plans to join the TPP. And countless “stakeholders” — corporations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Members of Congress, and others — are also involved in the talks. The general public — those affected by implementation of the TPP — have not been invited.” (DigitalTrends.com)
We all know what great harm NAFTA did to workers and the environment in both Mexico and the US. We lost more than half our manufacturing jobs — most of which were middle class sustaining union jobs. We lost the small businesses and in some cases the small towns that relied on those paychecks. Manufacturing wages fell in Mexico. The government had to lift the subsidies on growing corn and beans and people went hungry.
Now we face a similar disaster in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would speed up the global economic race to the bottom, give corporations even more rights to exploit workers in Asia, and further degrade the environment — all to give even more wealth to those at the top. It makes no sense.
The AFL-CIO has called for all trade deals and negotiations to be “people-centered” putting the interests of all of us above corporate interests.
The AARP has come out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, because it would further empower the drug companies (Big Pharma) including allowing drug companies to extend expensive monopolies on life-saving drugs.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is also concerned about the trade deal. “TPP raises significant concerns about citizens’ freedom of expression, due process, innovation, the future of the Internet’s global infrastructure… In sum, the TPP puts at risk some of the most fundamental rights that enable access to knowledge for the world’s citizens.” (EFF)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and at least 36 members of the House of Representatives have called for more transparency in the now secret deliberations.
There is much concern that such a trade deal would force the rollback of financial regulations in the US.
We will write more about this in the future.
Image source: DonkeyHotey on Flickr via Creative Commons License: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
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