Presenting the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the Public
by Joe Hueglin
We are informed, Prime Minister Harper "will be using his Malaysia and Bali visits to talk up the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a fledgling trade pact among 12 Pacific Rim countries that is still being negotiated.". http://www.brandonsun.com/national/breaking-news/harper-heads-to-apec-summit-in-bali-preaching-trade-amid-asian-economic-worries-226204101.html?thx=yWhen Canada was allowed to participate last year it was stated the Harper Government sees “Joining the TPP is good news for hard-working Canadian families. Opening new markets and increasing Canadian exports to fast-growing markets throughout the Asia-Pacific region is a key part of our government’s plan to create jobs, growth and long-term prosperity" http://www.international.gc.ca/media_commerce/comm/news-communiques/2012/10/09a.aspx?lang=eng
Leaked information regarding negotiations, whose terms are unseen by all save corporate advisors, indicate "Only five of the 29 chapters contain provisions related to trade. The other chapters consist of provisions related to patent protections, investor state rights and finance deregulation, among others." http://truth-out.org/news/item/19135-the-trans-pacific-partnership-we-wont-be-fooled-by-rigged-corporate-trade-agreements
Not good news to hard working families but rather the picture that is painted is that "The Trans-Pacific Partnership Is a Corporate Coup in Disguise" in terms of Food Safety, Fracking, Jobs, Drug Prices, Internet Freedom, and Public Services. http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18231-jim-hightower-the-trans-pacific-partnership-is-a-corporate-coup-in-disguise
Parliament being prorogued, the Prime Minister talking it up on his trip, and debate over pipelines and Senators' screw ups becoming somewhat stale, provide the ideal opportunity for making Canadians aware of what is in the process of being arrived at and its implications for them.
Indeed one aspect 'twould seem has already become newsworthy - providing the opening for others to be developed, n'est ce pas?
ASPECT IN MOTION:
"We've Never Seen Anything Like it Before" http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/david-christopher-/weve-never-seen-anything-_b_4026672.html?utm_hp_ref=stephen-harper
Internet freedom. Corporations hoping to lock up and monopolize the Internet failed in Congress last year to pass their repressive "Stop Online Piracy Act." However, they've slipped SOPA's most pernicious provisions into TPP. The deal would also transform Internet service providers into a private, Big Brother police force, empowered to monitor our "user activity," arbitrarily take down our content and cut off our access to the Internet. To top that off, consumers could be assessed mandatory fines for something as benign as sending your mom a recipe you got off of a paid site.
ASPECTS NOT YET PRESENTED TO THE PUBLIC:
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.
Fracking. Our Department of Energy would lose its authority to regulate exports of natural gas to any TPP nation. This would create an explosion of the destructive fracking process across our land, for both foreign and U.S. corporations could export fracked gas from America to member nations without any DOE review of the environmental and economic impacts on local communities or on our national interests.
Jobs. US corporations would get special foreign-investor protections to limit the cost and risk of relocating their factories to low-wage nations that sign onto this agreement. So, an American corporation thinking about moving a factory would know it is guaranteed a sweetheart deal if it moves operations to a TPP nation like Vietnam. This would be an incentive for corporate chieftains to export more of our middle-class jobs.
Drug prices. Big Pharma would be given more years of monopoly pricing on each of their patents and be empowered to block distribution of cheaper generic drugs. Besides artificially keeping everyone's prices high, this would be a death sentence to many people suffering from cancer, HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis and other treatable diseases in impoverished lands.
Banksters. Wall Street and the financial giants in other TPP countries would make out like bandits. The deal explicitly prohibits transaction taxes (such as the proposed Robin Hood Tax here) that would shut down speculators who have repeatedly triggered financial crises and economic crashes around the world. It restricts "firewall" reforms that separate consumer banking from risky investment banking. It could roll back reforms that governments adopted to fix the extreme bank-deregulation regimen that caused Wall Street's 2007 crash. And it provides an escape from national rules that would limit the size of "too-big-to-fail" behemoths.
Public services. TPP rules would limit how governments regulate such public services as utilities, transportation and education including restricting policies meant to ensure broad or universal access to those essential needs. One insidious rule says that member countries must open their service sectors to private competitors, which would allow the corporate provider to cherry-pick the profitable customers and sink the public service.
Lori Wallach, director of Global Trade Watch, correctly calls the Trans-Pacific Partnership "a corporate coup d'etat." Nations that join must conform their laws and rules to TPP's strictures, effectively supplanting U.S. sovereignty and canceling our people's right to be self-governing. Worse, it creates virtually permanent corporate rule over us.
Is it impossible to stop? Nope. There is also a broad, well-organized and politically experienced coalition of grassroots groups, which has stopped other deals and will do it again. We the people can protect our democratic rights from this threat of corporate usurpation. Check out globaltradewatch.org.
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18231-jim-hightower-the-trans-pacific-partnership-is-a-corporate-coup-in-disguise
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