Facing the Threat of the Trans-Pacific Treaty

[octoberlib]

Published on Sunday, March 10, 2013 by Institute for Policy Studie
Damage from 20 years of NAFTA shows us why latest trade deal must be stopped. Free trade creates rich people, poor communities

by Manuel Pérez Rocha and Kristen Beifus and Raul Burbano

Since NAFTA was signed almost 20 years ago, all three North American countries have seen good jobs vanish, worsening income inequality, public services weakened through underfunding or offloaded to the private sector, increased food insecurity (in particular in Mexico), and ecosystems on the point of breaking. NAFTA promised a flourishing North American economy that would benefit all. In Jan. 2014, NAFTA has been in place for 20 years and the promised trickle down benefits have not been realized by communities.


In the past 10 years, Canada has lost 500,000 manufacturing jobs. A new United Way Toronto report found that in and around Toronto, Canada's largest city, 20 per cent of people are now employed in precarious, unstable or part-time jobs. This type of employment has increased by 50 per cent in the past 20 years since NAFTA was signed. In this same period, not a single notable social program has been introduced or expanded. Free trade has permanently eroded our sense of what people can do together for the common good.


Next generation corporate trade deals like the TPP and the proposed "comprehensive" pacts that Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are pursuing with the European Union, purposely take away our ability to pursue alternative economic strategies. These deals are designed to ensure that governments have no power in the economy, and that they are only useful when they are using tax payer dollars to bail out large banks and other corporations.

Like NAFTA, the TPP will handcuff our ability to set regulations in key areas like finance, industry, the environment, public procurement and fostering programs to create jobs at home. Free trade offers corporate subsidies for the rich and cut-throat competition for everyone else. So it should come as no surprise that communities across the continent and the Western Hemisphere are mobilizing in what can be expected as the battle against the TPP.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/10-2

[HiPointDem]

1. kr. really under the radar. i don't think people understand how much of us policy is already

mandated by these trade agreements.

[octoberlib]

2. I don't think they have a clue. The MSM sure isn't talking about this stuff.nt

[Demo_Chris]

3. Let's not forget, free trade bankrupts nations

It's ALWAYS been a scam.

[blkmusclmachine]

4. NAFTA: The Big Dog's Big Lie

[forestpath]

5. Another deal, another hit on the middle and working classes.

[xchrom]

6. du rec. nt

[Nye Bevan]

7. So why is President Obama pushing for it?

Is he evil, stupid, ignorant, naive, or bring bribed?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Strategic_Economic_Partnership

[ReRe]

8. Milton Freidman's Shock Doctrine continues....

K&R

... manipulating the lives of the people. I don't remember giving total strangers the right to use me like a game pawn in their giant board game. Fuck Ayn Rand. Fuck globalization. Fuck Wall Street. We need to go back to the US Constitution, adding amendments that disallow anyone or any corporation, foreign or domestic, from capitalizing on people's lives without the people's permission, without informing them of what the Hell is going on. They got NAFTA and GATT by saying it would be the best thing since sliced bread. Now, after 20 years, we see that they were lying through their sneering teeth.

Are we a free people? Are we the masters of our own destiny? I think Corporations own us at this point. If not now, then they will for sure after they pass this TPP treaty.

The article invites organizations who are against the Trans-Pacific Partnership to sign up at http://www.tppxborder.org

[Nye Bevan]

9. "Obama gets win as Congress passes free-trade agreements"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-gets-win-as-congress-passes-free-trade-agreements/2011/10/12/gIQAGHeFgL_story.html

The South Korea deal has the potential to create as many as 280,000 American jobs, according to a recent assessment by the staff of the U.S. International Trade Commission, and to boost exports by more than $12 billion. Several major labor unions have warned that any gains will come at the cost of layoffs among American workers because of heightened competition from South Korean imports.

The South Korea deal is widely hailed as the most consequential trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement was ratified in 1994.

The House approved all three deals and was quickly followed by the Senate. Final approval of the agreements represents a victory for the Obama administration and congressional leaders in both parties, who have touted the trade pacts as a means to jump-start the flagging economy without additional government spending. Ratification of the agreements holds particular importance for President Obama, who has set a goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2015 and is facing a tough bid for reelection with unemployment stuck at 9.1 percent.

“I look forward to signing these agreements,” Obama said late Wednesday. He hailed passage as “a major win for American workers and businesses.”

[ReRe]

10. I don't think this is referring to the TPP

Date of article Oct 12, 2011. "Potential". Not a guarantee. And only the potential for 280,000 jobs? 280,000 jobs is going to get us nowhere, especially if Nafta and Gatt takes that many jobs out of USA.