Bloomberg columnist questions "why the secrecy" surrounding TPP negotiations....

[JohnyCanuck]

... Says Asia should opt out, fears that it's a "corporatist power grab" validated.

Pacific Trade Deal Needs More WikiLeaking
By William Pesek
Bloomberg View
December 19, 2013

Self-awareness often eludes U.S. officials who push American interests on Asia. John Kerry’s visit to Vietnam was a case in point as the secretary of state implored the government to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

In his pitch earlier this week, Kerry said the U.S.-led trade deal would bring “transparency” and “accountability” to the communist nation, helping it become a more open society that supports free expression. An odd thought, considering the Big Brother-like secrecy enshrouding the treaty on the U.S. side.

The pro-TPP argument goes as follows: This is the moment Asia’s reformers have been waiting for. It’s a chance for Japan to take on vested interests, Malaysia to kill growth-stifling affirmative-action policies, Vietnam to rein in bloated state-owned enterprises and Singapore to spur innovation. Think of TPP as an economic Trojan horse -- a means of shaking up stagnant political systems by stealth.

Yet the dearth of details about the treaty is exactly why Asia should opt out of the most ambitious free-trade deal in U.S. history.

U.S. lawmakers and civil-liberties groups have complained for some time about the opacity surrounding the treaty’s terms. Mild grousing turned into outrage last month after WikiLeaks did what Barack Obama’s White House refuses to: share portions of the document with the public. The draft of the intellectual-property rights chapter by Julian Assange’s outfit validated the worst fears -- that TPP is a corporatist power grab. Rather than heed the outcry, the U.S. doubled down on secrecy, refusing to disclose more details.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-19/pacific-trade-deal-needs-more-wikileaking.html

[djean111]

1. The secrecy is because it is a corporate power grab.

"Trade" is just a part of it.

[JDPriestly]

2. K&R.

[JohnyCanuck]

3. Secret Trade Deal Spawns ‘We Will Not Obey’ Movement

By Zack Kaldveer and Katherine Paul
Organic Consumers Association, December 17, 2013

snip

In October, the Madison City Council unanimously passed a resolution declaring the city a “TPP-Free Zone,” and promising that if Congress passes the Trans Pacific Partnership, a global trade agreement, “We will not obey” it.

The TPP is the largest global trade pact to be negotiated since the World Trade Organization (WTO). Most of the details of the deal remain a mystery. Negotiations are being conducted in secret. But we know, from some of the drafts that have been leaked, that the TPP would hand transnational corporations the power to “protect their future profit potential” by suing countries, states, counties or cities in order to wipe out existing laws—laws specifically designed to protect communities’ best interests.

Those interests could include everything from internet freedom and banking and finance regulation, to the passing of bans on growing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

“Call it a sovereignty issue, or local control, or threat of lowering local standards with regard to government procurement (elimination of any “buy local” ordinances), food safety ordinances, living wage ordinances, environmental requirements, prevailing wage requirements on construction, etc.—[Madison City Council members] saw all these as threats to their authority and the job they had been elected to do,” said David Newby of the Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition. Newby played a key role in passing the “TPP-Free Zone” resolution in Madison, and another in Dane County, Wis.

The “TPP-Free Zone” concept is modeled after the successful grassroots strategy that helped defeat a similar trade agreement in 1998, called the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). The basic premise was to convince elected officials, city by city, county by county, of the need to refuse to obey the MAI if it became law. The anti-MAI grassroots effort succeeded by exposing the dark side of the MAI, and by proving its unpopularity with the public.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_28928.cfm

[JohnyCanuck]

4. kick n/t