Wow. PLEASE READ. Last month the USTR released a document that illuminated US trade objectives [View all]

[cali]

File under things that slip by under the radar.

This isn't secret. It's NOT speculation. This is a document entitled "2015 Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers", and what the USTR considers barriers is shocking, disgusting and depraved. Yes. Depraved. Public Health measures, environmental laws; these and more are considered trade barriers by the U.S.

With Push For Trans-Pacific Partnership, U.S. Undermines Public Interest Policies Of Partner Nations

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In the more than 400 page long report, U.S. negotiators openly acknowledge goals that are odds with the Obama administration’s repeated assurances that TPP will not undermine the ability of pact members to regulate in the public interest.

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Among the highlights, food labeling policies: A new law in Peru, not yet finalized, that would mandate warning statements on prepackaged foods with excessive amounts of sugar, sodium and saturated fats; similar laws in Vietnam and in Mexico, the latter of which recently overtook the U.S. as the world’s most obese country; another law in Chile, approved though not yet in effect, that would require warning icons on foods that exceed specified thresholds in fat, calories, sugars and sodium. (The USTR warns as much as 80 percent of the U.S.'s $312.4 million in prepackaged food exports to Chile would be affected and bemoans the law’s restrictions on the use of unsubstantiated “health claims.”)

The USTR did not respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. also considers some newly approved environmental protections to be barriers. American trade officials single out a 2012 Vietnamese directive that banned the import of hazardous waste products including lead batteries, circuit boards, plastic waste and cooling devices with chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, ozone layer depleting gases that a universally-ratified United Nations treaty is in the process of phasing out. (The USTR says the banned imports are “potentially harmful to the environment.”) It also criticizes a new energy efficiency measure in Mexico for imposing “burdensome and costly labeling requirements for exports.”

In its report, the USTR also targets privacy regulations: A landmark Malaysian law that prevents companies from harvesting personal data without the individual’s consent is a trade barrier. As are policies in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and British Columbia that require personal information in the custody of public officials to be stored and accessed only in Canada.

Much more:

http://www.ibtimes.com/push-trans-pacific-partnership-us-undermines-public-interest-policies-partner-nations-1931141

Here is a link to the USTR document

https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/2015%20NTE%20Combined.pdf