Heads Up!! "Obama Ready to Defy Base in Order to Advance Trans-Pacific Partnership"

[OrwellwasRight]

183. One can opine on what the USTR has said publicly.

There are also leaks.

Go to this website: http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/fact-sheets/2011/november/outlines-trans-pacific-partnership-agreement

USTR admits the agreement will:

include "investor-State dispute settlement" -- which allows foreign corporations to bypass US courts to challenge state, federal, and local laws they don't think are "fair" and to recover unlimited amounts of "lost expected profits" when they win cases in front of private arbitration panels


"promote economic integration and jobs in the region, including through the development of regional production and supply chains." "Supply chains" means offshoring more US jobs.

"E-Commerce. The e-commerce text will enhance the viability of the digital economy by ensuring that impediments to both consumer and businesses embracing this medium of trade are addressed. Negotiators have made encouraging progress, including on provisions addressing customs duties in the digital environment, authentication of electronic transactions, and consumer protection. Additional proposals on information flows and treatment of digital products are under discussion." This means undermining digital privacy and consumer opt-out laws so that countries will HAVE to let companies store consumer and patient data anywhere they want, including in off shore servers that are out of reach of domestic data privacy and security rights.

"facilitate the opening of the procurement markets"--opening procurement markets means undermining "Buy America" and "Buy American" laws by treating bids from the 11 other TPP countries as if they were bids by American bidders. This means our taxpayer dollars head overseas creating jobs there, not here.

"Proposals are under discussion on many forms of intellectual property, including trademarks, geographical indications, copyright and related rights, patents, trade secrets, data required for the approval of certain regulated products, as well as intellectual property enforcement and genetic resources and traditional knowledge." Do we really want to allow patents on genes and on indigenous knowledge? Do we really want to trademarks the same as patents and copyrights? US law has never done so.

"Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS). To enhance animal and plant health and food safety and facilitate trade among the TPP countries, the nine countries have agreed to reinforce and build upon existing rights and obligations under the World Trade Organization Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. The SPS text will contain a series of new commitments on science, transparency, regionalization, cooperation, and equivalence." First of all, would we want to build on WTO rules that have already been used to undermine dolphin-safe tuna labeling and country of origin food labeling in the US. And we want stronger laws?
Ag Secretary Vilsack has already indicated that he opposes GMO labeling, and the corporations that have the largest influence in the negotiations have made clear their opinion that GMO labeling is not "science based." Therefore, the TPP will impede GMO labeling efforts.

This is just a start . . . if you want to know what is going on, you have to investigate. You have to learn the code words that the trade negotiators use for corporate friendly rules that sound harmless. In short, you have to be an active citizen. Because of the secrecy, the truth isn't going to come out on its own. By the time negotiations are complete and the text is revealed is too late. Because by then, no changes can be made due to Fast Track.