While the majority of Americans have
been involved in the "wedge issues" of abortion, guns, gays, poor teachers, etc.
the country has been taken away from them. The key to having any hope of
regaining our democracy is these NotSee Americans to open their eyes and get
actively involved. (If it isn't too late)
How The Trans Pacific Partnership Affects All Americans as Well as the Rest of the World
TPP - The Trans Pacific Partnership
As has been the case with other "free trade" agreements (NAFTA,
CAFTA, etc.) little or nothing is known not only by the people, but the legislators as well. Typically the way
these extremely harmful laws get passed through a means called "Fast Track" which actually by-passes Congress. The
President simply passes it to Congress for an Up or Down vote with little or no debate, then signs it into
law.
Once these "laws" are put in action very little good comes to the
nations involved. This TPP has been under "negotiation" for a couple of years in which over 600 corporate attorneys
have been manipulating the document stripping the sovereign rights of nations, giving corporations sole ownership
of whatever they choose to do.
Meanwhile, only Congressman Alan Grayson was allowed to view what
"progress" has been made, but was not allowed to copy, make notes, or discuss what he saw. Now one might ask, "If
this is for the good of the United States, why can't we have knowledge of what is in it?"
All we can go by is the results of NAFTA and CAFTA which have done
little good for our nation or for the other nations involved. As Ross Perot, presidential candidate prior to the
signing of NAFTA, said it would creat a "swooshing sound" of jobs leaving our country. The Corporate Media
Propagandists portrayed Perot as a "madman", doing what they do best in demonizing those they are paid to
destroy.
As it turned out Perot was most accurate. We not only lost our
manufacturing jobs, but Mexico citizens also saw the loss of their family farms which had been their livelihood,
causing them to move to cities in search of jobs. Most were not able to do so which caused them to come to the
United States where they took any job they could find, working for low wages and in some cases for nothing as when
pay day came around some employers would threaten to turn them in to immigration services so they disappeared,
unpaid, rather than being deported. Of course, nothing was done to employers who hired these individuals who were
not eligible to work in the U.S. even though there were laws that could imprison employers for hiring these
individuals.
There have also been instances where existing laws were by-passed
in favor of what a corporation wanted to do. Should a local government protest, the case would go before a mediator
that was hired by the corporation.
Below are some examples of the effects the TPP would have. Bear in
mind the entire document covers 29 chapters, but only Five (5) actually deal with trade. That in itself ought to
alert all of us!
Buy American/Buy
LocalThe TPP's procurement chapter would require that all
firms operating in any signatory country be provided equal access as domestic firms to U.S. government
procurement contracts over a certain dollar threshold. The United States would agree to waive "Buy American"
and "Buy Local" procurement policies for all such foreign firms, eliminating an important policy tool to use
U.S. tax dollars for U.S. job creation.
Endangers Access to Affordable MedicinesProposes measures that restrict access to
affordable medicines that have not been seen before inpast "free trade" agreements.
Financial RegulationsThe TPP would provide big banks with a backdoor means of rolling back efforts to
re-regulate Wall Street in the wake of the global economic crisis.
How
TPP Will Impact Corporate PowerThe Trans-Pacific
Partnership Would Empower Corporations to Attack U.S. Policies in Foreign Tribunals and Demand Taxpayer
Compensation for Our Environmental, Health and Other Laws
Intellectual
Property RightsThis is the consolidated text of the
chapter on Intellectual Property Rights. It has been provided through Wikileaks
Internet FreedomUnder this TPP
proposal, Internet Service Providers could be required to "police" user activity (i.e. police YOU),
take down internet content, and cut people off from internet access for common user-generated
content.
Off-Shoring U.S. JobsNearly five
million American manufacturing jobs – one out of every four – have been lost since implementation of
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since NAFTA,
over 60,000 American manufacturing facilities have closed. The TPP would replicate and expand on the
NAFTA model.
TPP & Corporate PowerTrade
attorneys/officials have been writing the things needed for corporations to supercede the soveriegn
rights of nations.
TPP &
DemocracyThe TPP is not just one of the biggest “trade”
deals in U.S. history, but also one of the most secretive. After more than three years of negotiations
under the Obama administration and despite a plan for the deal to be signed by the end of 2013, the
press and public are still being denied access to the draft TPP text that, if enacted, would impact our
daily lives. The TPP’s secrecy threatens basic democratic principles. Even our representatives in
Congress – elected as caretakers of the domestic policies that the TPP would rewrite – have been denied
access to the TPP text for years. Only recently have they been allowed to see select chapters,
unaccompanied by staff, and under the condition that they not share what they read with the rest of
us.
TPP & HealthInvestment rules
within the TPP Public Health
TPP &
Our FoodThis horrendous piece of world take-over will
seriously undermine Food Safety
TPP
& Public HealthThe TPP would provide large
pharmaceutical firms with new rights and powers to increase medicine prices and limit consumers' access
to cheaper generic drugs.
TPP & Public ServicesThe Trans
Pacific Partnership will Harm Access to Essential Service
TPP Would
Undermine Most Public ServicesThe TPP would include
rules limiting how governments may regulate the service sector - utilities, transportation, education
and more.
To Dems - It's time to stand behind your consituents and the hell with the campaign
dollars from corporate lobbyists.
Workers'
RightsBy making it easier for U.S. corporations to offshore
decent jobs to low-wage countries, the TPP would accelerate the "race to the bottom" spurred by other free
trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), putting downward wage pressure on
U.S. workers while facilitating corporate exploitation of foreign workers. TPP includes the same incentives
and protections for off-shoring as NAFTA, such as special investor rights that eliminate many of the risks
and costs associated with relocating jobs to low-wage countries.