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Forum Post: 'NAFTA on Steroids': New Round of Secret Trade Negotiations Begins

Posted 11 years ago on Sept. 6, 2012, 8:01 p.m. EST by PeterKropotkin (1050) from Oakland, CA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

Trade negotiators from the US and eight other Pacific Rim countries met outside of Washington, DC Wednesday, commencing a new round of the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement negotiations, also known as 'Nafta on steroids.'

The TPP negotiations began in 2007 and have been carried through by the Obama administration and several Pacific nations under conditions of 'extreme secrecy' without press, public or policymaker oversight. Although most of the content involved in the discussions have been kept in secret, document leaks have revealed that negotiators are working out deals which could hamper free speech on the Internet, reduce access to affordable medicines, deregulate environmental laws, and harm labor rights around the world.

Earlier this year Public Citizen posted a leaked document from a past TPP meeting on their website revealing that the pact will give multinational corporations radical new political powers in global trade, including the allotment of vast legal powers to multinational corporations over governments.

Today, Amnesty International called on the participating countries, which currently include the U.S., Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam, to ensure that any new rules adhere to core principles of transparency and uphold human rights.

However, such hopes have not been secured in they eyes of many rights groups around the world. Critics fear that the agreements will broadly strip rights from ordinary citizens in favor of global financial players to an unprecedented degree.

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact has the potential to affect nearly every aspect of our lives as Americans,” said Allison Chin, President of the Sierra Club. “Alarmingly, however, is the opaque process in which the trade rules are being written. While hundreds of elite business executives have a hand in writing the rules that will affect American consumers, the public is largely left in the dark. This is a stealth affront to the principles of our democracy.”

Additionally, leaked information suggests that the agreement could attempt to achieve some of the same objectives as the controversial and broadly protested Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement (ACTA) and includes rules that could hamper free speech on the Internet.

“No one has the right to trade away our hard-fought legal protections for free speech and the right to health, and much less to do it behind closed doors,” said Suzanne Nossel, executive director for Amnesty International USA.

“It is time for TPP negotiators to show the public their cards and, more importantly, the draft text of the agreement.”

"The TPP has been cleverly misbranded as a trade agreement (yawn) by its corporate boosters," Lori Wallach wrote for the Nation earlier this year. "Think of the TPP as a stealthy delivery mechanism for policies that could not survive public scrutiny. Indeed, only two of the twenty-six chapters of this corporate Trojan horse cover traditional trade matters. The rest embody the most florid dreams of the 1 percent—grandiose new rights and privileges for corporations and permanent constraints on government regulation. They include new investor safeguards to ease job offshoring and assert control over natural resources, and severely limit the regulation of financial services, land use, food safety, natural resources, energy, tobacco, healthcare and more."

The new round of meetings will take place over the next 10 days in a secluded resort in Leesburg, Virginia.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/06-11

19 Comments

19 Comments


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[-] 2 points by Renneye (3874) 11 years ago

Here's my thread from a week ago. An important rally coming up!

http://occupywallst.org/forum/tpp-a-trade-deal-from-hell-occupy-tpp-anti-tpp-ral/

Occupy the TPP!!! Sept. 9th in Leesburg VA ~ Get On The Bus!!

If TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) passes, our freedoms will be in the hands of the Globalist Elite and we'll lose our Sovereignty for good.

How the f#ck did this get so far without us knowing about it???

http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2012/08/09/no-back-room-deals-for-the-1/

As the 14th major round of closed-door negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership gets under way in northern Virginia, join Citizens Trade Campaign and our labor, environmental, consumer, public health, family farm and other social justice allies at the TPP: Out of the Shadows! Rally for Good Jobs, Affordable Medicine & a Healthy Environment at 3:00pm on Sunday, September 9 outside the Lansdowne Resort at 44050 Woodridge Parkway in Leesburg. . GET ON THE BUS! Click here to RSVP and reserve seats on free buses to the rally from Washington, DC or sign up to receive info on carpooling options throughout the region.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dG5aSTdaczZYMHA0ZWR3b0ZjVlpmTmc6MQ

[-] 2 points by shadz66 (19985) 11 years ago

Thanx for your very necessary strong comment.

pax et lux ...

[-] 2 points by beautifulworld (23769) 11 years ago

From the article: "negotiators are working out deals which could hamper free speech on the Internet, reduce access to affordable medicines, deregulate environmental laws, and harm labor rights around the world."

Here's more information on the TPP:

http://tppwatch.org/what-is-tppa/

[-] 1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 11 years ago

Thanks for the link BW.

http://tppwatch.org/what-is-tppa/

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23769) 11 years ago

Sure. We all need to learn more about this.

[-] 1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 11 years ago

You got that right and we are all starting out far far behind the current process status.

[-] 1 points by beautifulworld (23769) 11 years ago

There is much to combat, as you know.

[-] 2 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 11 years ago

OH man it can give me a migraine to think about it - but it won't get better the longer it waits to get done. Best to dig in now and work like hell.

[-] 2 points by Nevada1 (5843) 11 years ago

Thank you Peter, for post.

[-] 1 points by turbocharger (1756) 8 years ago

2 years later they are still working on pushing it through, now openly promoting it to gain interest.

How many shirts does someone need to make to support themselves? With the incredible margins in clothing, we are actually still able to do this and do it profitably. Just no one wants to.

Same with farming. Small farms can be really profitable. Get 5 people together, form a coop, and if you can net $200k a year (at $40/basket, you need to sell 100 baskets of goods a week).

Housing is still relatively profitable, due to the fact you can't export most of the labor. But even now, doors, windows, etc are hard to find made in USA.

Food, clothing and shelter. The staples. We currently have no interest in the first two, but still some in the third.

Of course, the corps have used government to rig the game in their favor, and your politicians are about 99% certain you are going to put them back in power, so why change?

The minute we decide to take control of lives- real control- it all gets fixed. And fairly quickly.

Until then, its wait for the next election. And thats a lazy strategy.

[-] 0 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 8 years ago

2 years later they are still working on pushing it through, now openly promoting it to gain interest.

Well now - there ya go. You put the lie to the claim (your fanatical claim) that both parties are the same - AS - why didn't this TPP BS just go sailing through the approval process? Why are we still talking about the possibility of it getting passed? The game should be over long ago - IF - your fanatical claim were true.

[-] 0 points by turbocharger (1756) 8 years ago

Elaborate trade deals dont get passed on the fly you moron.

GATT has versions passed all the time.

It has nothing to do with your pathetic ex-KKK Democrats.

Holy shit, something just hit me... Are you old enough to remember them when they were all KKK'd up?

I bet you are you old sly fox lol.

[-] 0 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 8 years ago

Elaborate trade deals dont get passed on the fly you moron.

Why not? You say that the whole government is completely owned by the wealthy.

So why don't the wealthy have the approvals all lined up in advance?

Go bark at the moon some more.

[-] 0 points by turbocharger (1756) 8 years ago

Because they are doing deals you idiot, these things dont get done quick, negotiations, etc.

Are you really this slow minded? No wonder they have you so duped!! Your're an idiot!! HAHAHAHA

[-] 0 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 8 years ago

Because they are doing deals you idiot, these things dont get done quick, negotiations, etc.

IDIOT - they can and would do the deals off stage = behind closed doors and only present it when they were ready to pass it.

Try to visit reality once in a while - it will help you to shoot down your own idiotic fanaticism BS prior to your actually trying to post it.

[-] 1 points by turbocharger (1756) 8 years ago

Ok, so now you not only dont understand how deals work, but also dont know how government works.

Wow, no wonder you vote for more war and more Wall St profits. You don't know your own head from your ass!! Man, you are a mess.

[-] 0 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 8 years ago

What's that you spray?????? Your mumbling. Spit the shit out of your mouth. OH....right...... scuse...... that is what you have been doing.

[-] 1 points by Cocreator (306) 11 years ago

Peoples Party Unite! Founded in 1891, Huey Long would be proud, if we implement his vision of plenty for everone, not tooo much for anyone..Greed Kills. That will be the undoing of all these Traitors, and they are guity of many heinous crimes..Smiling in our face while stabbing us in the back, for generations, debt slaves, and exploitation of the masses and the environment, hiding the money in Switzerland,and other offshore booty stashes..Peoples Court, No Diplomatic Immunity..Treason is Treason.
We Are All Elected.. No More Elections, We all work one day a month, and do the job these government corporate shills pretend to do..

[-] 0 points by turbocharger (1756) 8 years ago

Just to clear something up for those readers who have no clue how anything on the planet really works..

When you are doing deals, there is usually at least one other party involved. In a multiple party trade deal, there may be quite a few.

Deals require multiple people and lawyers to come to some kind of conclusion.

Its not a case of one person writing it all down and then everyone just falls in line.

Unless you are a Dem or Rep voter. Then, that is literally how it goes!!

But this is OWS, so most likely the majority of you understand this. Prob a few too senile to grasp that, or the D/R thing, but what are you going to do.

History is filled with people being taken advantage of by government.