TPP: A Corporate Coup in Disguise

[Oscar]

A Corporate Coup in Disguise

[ http://admin.alternet.org/corporate-acc ... p-disguise ]

AlterNet [1] / By Jim Hightower [2] October 1, 2013

What if our national leaders told us that communities across America had to eliminate such local programs as Buy Local, Buy American, Buy Green, etc. to allow foreign corporations to have the right to make the sale on any products purchased with our tax dollars? This nullification of our people's right to direct expenditures is just one of the horror stories in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

This is a super-sized NAFTA, the 1994 trade scam rammed through Congress by the entire corporate establishment. NAFTA promised the "glories of globalization": prosperity across our land. Unfortunately, corporations got the gold. We got the shaft -- thousands of factories closed, millions of middle-class jobs went south, and the economies of hundreds of towns and cities were shattered.

Twenty years later, the gang that gave us NAFTA is back with the TPP, a "trade deal" that mostly does not deal with trade. Of the 29 chapters in this document, only five cover traditional trade matters! The other chapters amount to a devilish "partnership" for corporate protectionism:

—Food safety. Any of our government's food safety regulations (on pesticide levels, bacterial contamination, fecal exposure, toxic additives, etc.) and food labeling laws (organic, country-of-origin, animal-welfare approved, GMO-free, etc.) that are stricter than "international standards" could be ruled as "illegal trade barriers." Our government would then have to revise our consumer protections to comply with weaker standards.

—Fracking. Our Department of Energy would lose its authority to regulate exports of natural gas to any TPP nation. This would create an explosion of the destructive fracking process across our land, for both foreign and U.S. corporations could export fracked gas from America to member nations without any DOE review of the environmental and economic impacts on local communities -- or on our national interests.

—Jobs. US corporations would get special foreign-investor protections to limit the cost and risk of relocating their factories to low-wage nations that sign onto this agreement. So, an American corporation thinking about moving a factory would know it is guaranteed a sweetheart deal if it moves operations to a TPP nation like Vietnam. This would be an incentive for corporate chieftains to export more of our middle-class jobs.

—Drug prices. Big Pharma would be given more years of monopoly pricing on each of their patents and be empowered to block distribution of cheaper generic drugs. Besides artificially keeping everyone's prices high, this would be a death sentence to many people suffering from cancer, HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis and other treatable diseases in impoverished lands.

MORE:

[ http://admin.alternet.org/corporate-acc ... p-disguise ]


[ LINKS TO REFERENCES at Original URL above ]

[Oscar]

WATCH: Council of Canadians (Comox) opposes Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)

[ http://www.dsee.ca/coc-fights-tpp/ ]

January 31, 2014 - Length: 32 mins.

On January 31, 2014 the Council of Canadians held an Inter-Continental Day of Action in 45 cities across Canada, USA, Mexico and Australia protesting the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement(TPP) as well as other mega trade deals (CETA/FIPPA). Agreements like these adversely affect all regular people of the globe. They only feed the economy of the wealthy at the expense of public and their resources.

This short video documents what the Comox Valley Chapter of the Council of Canadians had to say.

It’s time to wake up people…deals like this WILL last long!

For more information on these issues or the Council of Canadians, please visit

[ http://www.canadians.org ] or
[ http://cvcofcanadians.wordpress.com/ ]

[Oscar]

Obscure Senate bill sparks diplomatic spat with Vietnam

[ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014 ... tnam.html# ]

December 5, 2014 Toronto Star

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QUOTE: "“Vietnam is a strong and valued partner in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, a country of focus for Canadian development assistance, the International Education Strategy and the Global Markets Action Plan,” Adam Hodge told The Canadian Press in an email."

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OTTAWA—An obscure private member’s bill from a Conservative senator has sparked a diplomatic spat between Canada and Vietnam.

Despite Vietnam’s dark warnings that the bill will have an adverse impact on relations between the two countries, the Harper government appears determined to pass it.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Thanh Hai Ngo, would recognize April 30 as a national day to commemorate the exodus of Vietnamese refugees and their acceptance in Canada after the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese communist forces.

The bill was originally entitled the “Black April Day Act,” as April 30 is known among many, including Ngo, who fled South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War.

In a nod to the vociferous objections of the Vietnamese government, the title was changed to the “Journey to Freedom Act.”

But the intention remains unchanged.

“For Canadians of Vietnamese origin and the wide Vietnamese diaspora now living abroad, April 30 depicts a day when South Vietnam fell under the power of an authoritarian and oppressive communist regime that pays no heed to human rights,” Ngo told the Senate when he kicked off debate at second reading last spring.

“We remember April 30 as a black day because it represents the sad day we lost our country, our families, our friends, our homes, our freedom and our democratic rights. It commemorates a day of loss and grief.”

When the bill was sent to the Senate’s human rights committee for study in October, Vietnam’s ambassador to Canada wrote to the committee chair to express his government’s “serious concerns” about the bill, and asked to be a witness.

The Conservative majority on the committee refused to invite the ambassador, suggesting instead that he send a written submission. However, after hearing from only three witnesses, including Ngo, the committee wrapped up its study of the bill before the ambassador’s submission, which had to be translated into French, could be tabled.

In that submission, which the committee did not consider, the ambassador accused Ngo of dredging up the past, painting a distorted view of his country’s history and ignoring its positive bilateral relationship with Canada over the past 40 years.

“The government of Vietnam disagrees with this negative and selective portrayal and has expressed its concerns privately and publicly,” To Anh Dung wrote, adding that his government has made “many representations to the most senior levels of the government of Canada and leaders of Parliament expressing our serious concerns about the language and intent of this bill.”

“If passed, this bill will have an adverse impact on the growing bilateral relations between our two countries. Despite claims of being non-political, this bill clearly incites national hatred and division, not unity.”

Vietnam’s deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, Pham Binh Minh, wrote to his Canadian counterpart, John Baird, back in June to voice his concerns.

“While we understand that this is technically not Government of Canada policy, we believe that passage of this Senate Bill S-219 would send the wrong message to the international community and the people of Vietnam,” he wrote.

A spokesman for Baird emphasized that this is “not a government bill” and that senators and MPs are free to introduce private member’s bills.

“Vietnam is a strong and valued partner in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, (See below. Ed.) a country of focus for Canadian development assistance, the International Education Strategy and the Global Markets Action Plan,” Adam Hodge told The Canadian Press in an email.

“Canada and Vietnam have strong mutual interests that guide our bilateral relations.”

MORE:

[ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014 ... tnam.html# ]


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Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

[ http://canadians.org/tpp ]

Across Canada and around the world, people are growing angry about the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP). They are tired of the secrecy of the 12-country negotiations and tired of the corporate agenda behind deals like the TPP.

On February 12, legislators in seven of the 12 TPP countries issued the following joint statement about the negotiations: [ http://www.tppmpsfortransparency.org/ ]:

We, the undersigned legislators from countries involved in the negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, call on the Parties to the negotiation to publish the draft text of the Agreement before any final agreement is signed with sufficient time to enable effective legislative scrutiny and public debate

In Canada, the statement was endorsed by the federal NDP and the Green Party of Canada. It is the simplest of demands for democracy on a “trade” deal that threatens to undermine the very notion of the public good, by giving corporations more power to undermine public policy.

Click here to amplify this message to Canada’s international trade minister and members of the parliamentary trade committee:
[ http://canadians.org/expose-tpp#letter ]

Read about the direct threats of the TPP:
[ http://canadians.org/tpp-info ]