General Discussion

marmar

(77,081 posts) Tue Apr 21, 2015, 10:52 PM Apr 2015

San Francisco Opposes TPP Fast Track in New Resolution

San Francisco Opposes TPP Fast Track in New Resolution

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has unanimously voted in favor of a resolution today urging the district's congressional representatives to oppose Fast Track legislation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. Supervisor John Avalos put forth the resolution, which expresses concerns about the secret trade agreement's provisions that would impact the free and open Internet, among a host of other threats to the public interest.

This comes at a critical time, as lawmakers introduced a new Fast Track (aka trade promotion authority) bill last week to limit Congress' constitutionally-mandated authority over the White House's trade policies. Fast Track would restrict Congress to a yea-or-nay vote to pass the TPP with limited debate, and it would even prevent them from amending the final contents of the deal.

San Francisco is a city that has long been committed to government transparency, and the utter secrecy of deals like the TPP flies in the face of those values. The Board of Supervisors (which also serves as our city council) passed the Sunshine Ordinance almost 15 years ago to protect openness of the government's workings. "Public officials who attempt to conduct the public's business in secret should be held accountable for their actions," the law reads. And of course, the same must also be true of binding international deals, especially those that threaten to constrain federal and state lawmakers from passing rules in the public interest. The back-room meetings that have led to the TPP's harmful provisions should be seen as particularly offensive to a city that itself upholds transparency in government. .............(more)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/san-francisco-passes-resolution-oppose-fast-track-tpp