TPP Agreement: ‘Free Trade’ That Is Anything But Free

Obama is secretly negotiating a so-called "free trade" agreement that, among other things, would allow corporations to sue countries whose labor laws, environmental legislation, or food and safety regulations result in a loss of profit. This draconian agreement which would further erode Democracy and destroy U.S. sovereignty by giving corporations powers that permeate several areas of our society (link: http://www.alternet.org/activism/activists-protest-trans-pacific-partnership-dc) is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), though it’s known as NAFTA on steroids by many.
 
The fact that the TPP is being negotiated in complete secrecy is very revealing (link: http://truth-out.org/news/item/15142-corporate-backed-trans-pacific-partnership-shrouded-in-secrecy). Approximately 600 representatives -- lobbyists -- of corporate-interest groups including Walmart, Monsanto, Chevron, and Halliburton are pushing President Obama to get the law passed without Congressional approval by fast-tracking it. The complete text of the TPP has not been released yet to the public which tells you just how dystopian it really is but we have learned a little bit about it. The "free trade" agreement could set rules on non-trade matters including food safety, internet freedom, medicine costs, financial regulations and the environment and require the unfortunate countries that sign the TPP to conform their domestic policies to its rules.
 
President Obama continued negotiating the egregious TPP agreement during the recent U.S. government shut down. The TPP would affect the U.S., Australia, Brunel, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. The talks have been conducted in completely secrecy for obvious reasons and the fact that Obama is trying to ram it through with no Congressional oversight tells you just how bad it is. It needs to be stopped dead it its tracks.
 
WITH EXTREME SECRECY, WHAT WE DON’T KNOW WILL HURT US
 
The secrecy surrounding the TPP is growing (link: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/06/57437/). It seems the governments negotiating the so-called "free trade" agreement don't want anyone to know what they're doing. The text of the TPP isn't the only thing these governments want to hide from their citizens. The TPP appears to be drafted on draconian -- most like completely illegal and treasonous -- policies that will aid a few corporations while screwing a multitude of others and entire populations will pay a heavy price. It appears that what we don't know will hurt us.
 
Some in Congress continue demanding access to the secret text of the TPP. The few that had access to the TPP text saw it only under the conditions that they not reveal any of it in public. One outspoken Congressman did reveal that it does not bode well for the U.S. public but could not elaborate on any specific details. If Obama cons the U.S. Congress into fast-tracking the TPP, the only way it will be stopped is by the people. Under the TPP, the laws created by governments would become ineffective to maximize the profits of the corporations negotiating it.
 
Leaked draft texts of the TPP reveal that Intellectual Property (IP) laws across the globe would have extensive negative ramifications for freedom of speech, right to privacy and due process, and hinder people's ability to innovate. The sheer lack of transparency surrounding the TPP shuts out multi-stakeholder participation. The people affected the most have no voice or representation when illicit government actions are conducted in secrecy. The U.S. negotiations are pushing for far more restrictive copyright measures than are currently required by International Treaties including the dystopian Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and will rewrite global rules on IP enforcement (link: https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp).
 
TPP SECRETLY NEGOTIATED FOR MORE THAN THREE YEARS
 
Allowing Obama to fast-track the TPP with no Congressional oversight and no transparency is a very bad idea (link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/23-5). The American people, as well as all citizens of participating countries, have the right to know the contents of the TPP. Corporations, especially the fraudulent ones mentioned earlier in this article, cannot be the only interests represented in the TPP since they do not advocate policies that represent or safeguard the interests of the public at all. It needs to be stopped and Obama needs to quit treating his constituents as pawns in affairs that will affect much of what they do.
 
The TPP would restrict Congressional ability to change domestic laws revolving around the IP needs of U.S. citizens and the technology sector, place greater liability on Internet intermediaries, regulate temporary reproduction of copyrighted works, enact a three-step test that puts restrictions on Fair Use, ban circumvention of digital locks protections, ban parallel importation and adopt criminal sanctions for copyright infringement done without a commercial motivation. You should be concerned about TPP because it raises serious red flags about freedom of expression, due process, internet freedoms and the rights of sovereign nations to develop policies and laws to meet their domestic priorities. The TPP will be used to create new heightened global IP enforcement norms and countries that are not signatories to the egregious agreement will most likely be required to cater to the TPP as a condition of bilateral trade agreements.
 
Obama and his administration have been secretly negotiating the TPP for more than three years. Congress has limited access to the text of the TPP but more than 600 corporate advisors don’t. The TPP goes far beyond a trade deal and is in fact nothing but a Trojan horse that has nothing to do with fair and equitable treatment and everything to do with worldwide corporate power (link: http://truth-out.org/news/item/19135-the-trans-pacific-partnership-we-wont-be-fooled-by-rigged-corporate-trade-agreements). U.S. free trade agreements over the past twenty years have resulted in the loss of nearly 5 million American jobs. This one will fare no better.
 
PARTICIPATING POPULATIONS WILL PAY A HEAVY PRICE FOR THE TPP
 
In the case of the TPP, “free trade” will be anything but free and world populations will pay a heavy price. As noted by Andrew Gavin Marshall, we can have destruction, or we can have dignity. We can have hypocrisy, or we can have honesty. We can have fascism, or we can have a future. We can have repression, or we can have possibility. We can have Empire, or we can have Humanity. We cannot have both. President Obama is merely the latest political personification of imperial phlegm spewed representing the American oligarchy and not the American public. The future of humanity – and the ending of empire – can only exist in the hands of humanity itself (link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36702.htm). The time has come for the people of the world to put to take their power back.
 
Congressional oversight under U.S. fast-track guidelines, is at best extremely limited and at worst, non-existent. Having limited time to debate the TPP and not allowing amendments, let alone not allowing anyone in Congress time to digest all the information in the TPP is a travesty. In short, trade agreements tie the hands of Congress while undermining U.S. sovereignty. Having no time to allow the public and Congress to understand how detrimental the TPP is and would be is unfathomable. With the track record of the Obama administration over the past five years, having no time to see how this country is being conned would end up being disastrous.
 
It appears that the TPP may be a backdoor to push the fraudulent Neocon economic agenda (link: http://truth-out.org/news/item/18555-revealed-potential-fed-chair-summers-at-heart-of-global-economic-crisis) revealed by Investigative reporter Greg Palast. If the text of the TPP was revealed, it would not survive public scrutiny and the Obama regime’s treasonous actions would be revealed in all their glory. Too many times we’ve been shown that you cannot believe in or trust anything Washington tells us because they never tell the truth and they only cater to the corporations that own them. Together we can stop the TPP despite the influx of propaganda. We need to demand transparency and uphold Democracy. The time has come to put an end to the corporate strangle hold on Washington once and for all.