Ten Days and Counting: We the People Running Out of Time

The Basic or Root Question

Not Pretty Outcome

Who Backs TPP / Who Does Not

The Reach of TPP

The headlines from here should alert you and hopefully motivate you into some sort of action – will it?

So, what does TPP stand for? For starters click here for a very good and short run down on the subject. Then read the piece by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) – extract:

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a disastrous trade agreement designed to protect the interests of the largest multi-national corporations at the expense of workers, consumers, the environment and the foundations of American democracy. It will also negatively impact some of the poorest people in the world.

The TPP is a treaty that has been written behind closed doors by the corporate world. Incredibly, while Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry and major media companies have full knowledge as to what is in this treaty, the American people and members of Congress do not. They have been locked out of the process. Further, all Americans, regardless of political ideology, should be opposed to the “fast track” process which would deny Congress the right to amend the treaty and represent their constituents’ interests. Not only oppose this fast track, but all others for one simple reason: it is undemocratic and does not allow for fair, open, and lively debate in Congress before and during the legislative process, plus it keeps the pubic in the dark – that is not what America is about, is it? Hardly!!!

The TPP follows in the footsteps of other unfettered “free” trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, and the Permanent Normalized Trade Agreement with China (PNTR).  

Those treaties resulted in this short list of disappointments:

• Forced American workers to compete against desperate and low-wage labor around the world.
• Caused massive job losses in the United States.
• Allowed tens of thousands of factories to shut down.
• Allowed the corporately backed trade agreements to contribute to the race to the bottom.
• A documented collapse of the American middle class.
• An increase in the wealth and an income inequality.
• This agreement, the TPP, is more of the same, but even worse.

And, then consider this very serious aspect of that agreement, if it becomes law, in nutshell: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secretive, multi-national trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement. The main problems are two-fold – story continues at the link – worth the time.  

Thanks for stopping by – this is a very critical issue – stay tuned.