A global corporate power grab
A global corporate power grab
Monday 29 April 2013
by Steve McGiffen
The ruling elites of the European Union and the United States are planning yet another far-reaching measure designed to undermine parliamentary democracy.
They're seeking to remove any opportunity for popular input on policy-making on a wide range of issues.
Just as the two have used their power to impose trade agreements on developing countries which hugely restrict their political and economic choices, the plan now is to agree a trade pact which would allow the world's richest countries to dictate to everyone else what can and cannot be bought and sold across borders.
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In reality, the only winners would be multinational corporations.
Take some examples of what we [the people of the EU] would have to accept within the EU if the agreement comes to fruition.
First, the EU's tight restrictions on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture and in food production would be loosened - perhaps eliminated.
The EU's environmental and public health policies are ostensibly based on what is known as the "precautionary principle," which means that unless there is overwhelming evidence that a product is safe it must not be approved.
More at link: http://morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/132306
This is a new agreement, part of President Obama's trade agenda to "create jobs," since Congress is refusing to use fiscal policy to do so. Unfortunately, Keynes was right, and no US trade agreement has yet proved to create jobs or to do anything but enrich the trans-national corporations at the expense of the rest of us. Unfortunately, in part due to media laziness and in part due to the extreme secrecy surrounding the process, most Americans don;t even know about the agreements, so they can't speak up and say what they'd like to see in the agreements, as opposed to the corporate-rights-and-privileges model that currently exists. They agreements affect things like food safety, labor markets, environmental regulations, banking sector regulations, copyright and patent terms and policy, and government procurement policy. They are not just about tariffs -- and they do not promote "freedom." Except the freedom of transnational corporations to claim extraordinary legal rights without any corresponding benefits.
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