Canadians Have Reason to Be Wary of TPP Trade Deal
[ http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2015/06/03 ... ign=080615 ]
Details of the biggest negotiations on the planet still shrouded in secrecy.
By Michael Geist, 3 Jun 2015, TheTyee.ca
EXCERPT:
The TPP cheerleading from business groups is somewhat puzzling given that the full text of the deal remains shrouded in secrecy. In other words, business groups are advocating for a deal they haven't actually read or seen.
The concern is not just that the public has not had the chance to read the fine print of a deal that will affect every aspect of the Canadian economy. Rather, it is that the lack of transparency associated with the TPP virtually guarantees that it will be presented to Canadians on a "take it or leave it" basis with no informed public discussion or advance debate about the substantive terms.
Leaks should raise flags
Where elements of the agreement have become public through a series of high-profile leaks, there has been ample reason for concern. The investor-state dispute settlement provisions could lead to a proliferation of lawsuits against the Canadian government by companies.
For example, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is suing Canada for hundreds of millions in damages due to Canadian patent law. The cost to the health care system of an expanded investor lawsuit system could be enormous as claims from other pharmaceutical companies could soon follow.
Similarly, leaked versions of TPP intellectual property text point to the extension of the term of copyright, which would mean that no new Canadian works enter the public domain for decades. Moreover, e-commerce rules may block countries from enacting domestic privacy protections that mandate that personal information be stored locally.
In short, the TPP hype doesn't meet the reality. The new market access to a few countries comes at a significant cost, suggesting that Canadians should be skeptical about big claims on the still-secret deal. [Tyee]
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Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. He can be reached at mgeist@uottawa.ca or online at http://www.michaelgeist.ca.
Canadians Have Reason to Be Wary of TPP Trade Deal
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Canadians Have Reason to Be Wary of TPP Trade Deal
by Oscar » Mon Jun 08, 2015 3:43 pm
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Re: Canadians Have Reason to Be Wary of TPP Trade Deal
by Oscar » Wed Jun 17, 2015 9:34 am
Canadians unaware of TPP trade deal: poll
[ http://metronews.ca/news/canada/1399444 ... deal-poll/ ]
June 17th, 2015 By Staff The Canadian Press
OTTAWA – It’s the biggest free trade deal Canadians never heard of.
A new poll suggests three in four Canadians have no idea that Canada is one of 12 countries immersed in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The poll was conducted by Environics Research Group for Trade Justice Network, an umbrella group dedicated to challenging the secretive process by which international trade deals are generally negotiated.
Fully 75 per cent of respondents said they had never heard of the TPP before being asked about it by the pollster.
The telephone poll of 1,002 Canadians was conducted June 3-12 and is considered accurate within plus or minus 3.2 percentage points, 19 times in 20.
The 12 countries involved in negotiations include the United States, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Chile, Vietnam and Singapore; they represent a market of almost 800 million people and a combined gross domestic product of more than $25 trillion.
The federal government maintains the TPP would enhance trade in the Asia-Pacific region, providing greater economic opportunity for Canadians.
In a statement, Trade Justice Network spokesman Martin O’Hanlon called it “deeply disturbing” that so few Canadians are aware of the partnership talks.
The network maintains the secret negotiations are being conducted with the guidance of multinational corporations and with no input from labour leaders, environmentalists or even MPs.
“It’s frightening that this can happen in a democracy,” O’Hanlon said.
[ http://metronews.ca/news/canada/1399444 ... deal-poll/ ]
June 17th, 2015 By Staff The Canadian Press
OTTAWA – It’s the biggest free trade deal Canadians never heard of.
A new poll suggests three in four Canadians have no idea that Canada is one of 12 countries immersed in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The poll was conducted by Environics Research Group for Trade Justice Network, an umbrella group dedicated to challenging the secretive process by which international trade deals are generally negotiated.
Fully 75 per cent of respondents said they had never heard of the TPP before being asked about it by the pollster.
The telephone poll of 1,002 Canadians was conducted June 3-12 and is considered accurate within plus or minus 3.2 percentage points, 19 times in 20.
The 12 countries involved in negotiations include the United States, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Chile, Vietnam and Singapore; they represent a market of almost 800 million people and a combined gross domestic product of more than $25 trillion.
The federal government maintains the TPP would enhance trade in the Asia-Pacific region, providing greater economic opportunity for Canadians.
In a statement, Trade Justice Network spokesman Martin O’Hanlon called it “deeply disturbing” that so few Canadians are aware of the partnership talks.
The network maintains the secret negotiations are being conducted with the guidance of multinational corporations and with no input from labour leaders, environmentalists or even MPs.
“It’s frightening that this can happen in a democracy,” O’Hanlon said.
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Re: Canadians Have Reason to Be Wary of TPP Trade Deal
by Oscar » Wed Jun 17, 2015 10:40 am
Capitalism and the TPP: A Kinder, Gentler Totalitarianism
[ http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/3 ... itarianism ]
By Dennis Weiser, Truthout June 16, 2015
- - -
QUOTE: “. . . Corporate strategy now dominates our government and dictates all government policy. “
- - - -
Doug Hughes, a mail carrier, flew a gyrocopter under the radar to land on the Capitol lawn to deliver letters to every member of the US Congress urging them to get real campaign finance reform done.
John Kerry's Senate farewell warning that corporate money threatens to steal the American democracy is belated. US democracy has already been stolen. The only question is: Can it be recovered, and, if so, how?
To respond appropriately to the italicized events noted above, consider two questions:
1. How can any campaign finance reform possibly be effective until we dismantle all multinational corporations, perform the gene-splicing that will permanently remove the tendency toward monopoly and contamination from the organizational DNA inherent in all organized commerce?
2. How can we expect to dismantle all multinational corporations unless we get all electronic media advertising (especially cable and network television, radio and print media) money out of political campaigning?
The answer to both questions is the same: We can't. The Corporate Advertising-Marketing-&-Lobbying Fog Machine has bamboozled the American people into misguidedly blaming government alone for our problems instead of recognizing the complete fusion of corporate power and government decision-making (this, by the way, is the definition of fascism according to Benito Mussolini, who presumably knew what fascism was). Corporate strategy now dominates our government and dictates all government policy.
The traditional corporate line of defense supposedly justifying this situation and perpetuating the status quo is the shouted mantra: "We Create Jobs!" Multinational corporations exploit a blurry equivocation in the public mind (they actually planted it there), which identifies multinational and transnational corporations with the totality of corporate business, with all of commerce, with entrepreneurialism and with the political agenda that drives multinational denizens in every industry to preserve the status quo of their power, privilege and profits in the name of unsustainable growth and unattainable "progress." These propagandizing delusions deserve to be excised and therefore merit the following responses:
1. Multinational corporations do not create jobs for the majority of citizens. In more than 400 years of its history, corporate capitalism has never created meaningful work or a decent standard of living for the majority of citizens. Multinational corporations destroy US and global employment opportunities by currency gambling, by forced austerity via IMF and WTC predatory loans, by off-shoring jobs to cheap labor markets in Asia, India, Central America and Mexico à la NAFTA, CAFTA, and the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Act (TPP), for which President Obama is currently seeking prior fast-track trade authority to secretly finalize the TPP and Trade-in-Services Agreement (TISA).
2. More importantly, multinational corporate strategy is committed to eliminating half of all existing forms of employment across all sectors by automation tied to volatile and arbitrary technological changes. This is why it favors creating only high-tech jobs that meet the wants of corporations instead of the needs of citizen populations they purportedly - but in reality, do not - serve.
MORE:
[ http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/3 ... itarianism ]
+ + + + + + + +
WHAT IS TISA?
Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)
[ http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/tisa/ ]
+ + + +
TISA leak reveals US demands would impact net neutrality, data protection
[ http://canadians.org/blog/tisa-leak-rev ... protection ]
... of US proposals to the ongoing Trade In Services Agreement (TISA) reveals that US negotiators are seeking sweeping obligations that would ... a specific country. The Trade In Services Agreement (TISA) is an agreement being negotiated in secret on the sidelines of the ...
+ + + +
'Free trade' deals a threat to health care for all
[ http://canadians.org/blog/free-trade-de ... h-care-all ]
... another poison pill . Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) This agreement is being negotiated on the sidelines of the World ... Herald reports , "According to a leaked document, [TISA] negotiations ... will include discussion of wide-ranging reforms to ...
MORE:
[ http://canadians.org/search/node/TISA ]
[ http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/3 ... itarianism ]
By Dennis Weiser, Truthout June 16, 2015
- - -
QUOTE: “. . . Corporate strategy now dominates our government and dictates all government policy. “
- - - -
Doug Hughes, a mail carrier, flew a gyrocopter under the radar to land on the Capitol lawn to deliver letters to every member of the US Congress urging them to get real campaign finance reform done.
John Kerry's Senate farewell warning that corporate money threatens to steal the American democracy is belated. US democracy has already been stolen. The only question is: Can it be recovered, and, if so, how?
To respond appropriately to the italicized events noted above, consider two questions:
1. How can any campaign finance reform possibly be effective until we dismantle all multinational corporations, perform the gene-splicing that will permanently remove the tendency toward monopoly and contamination from the organizational DNA inherent in all organized commerce?
2. How can we expect to dismantle all multinational corporations unless we get all electronic media advertising (especially cable and network television, radio and print media) money out of political campaigning?
The answer to both questions is the same: We can't. The Corporate Advertising-Marketing-&-Lobbying Fog Machine has bamboozled the American people into misguidedly blaming government alone for our problems instead of recognizing the complete fusion of corporate power and government decision-making (this, by the way, is the definition of fascism according to Benito Mussolini, who presumably knew what fascism was). Corporate strategy now dominates our government and dictates all government policy.
The traditional corporate line of defense supposedly justifying this situation and perpetuating the status quo is the shouted mantra: "We Create Jobs!" Multinational corporations exploit a blurry equivocation in the public mind (they actually planted it there), which identifies multinational and transnational corporations with the totality of corporate business, with all of commerce, with entrepreneurialism and with the political agenda that drives multinational denizens in every industry to preserve the status quo of their power, privilege and profits in the name of unsustainable growth and unattainable "progress." These propagandizing delusions deserve to be excised and therefore merit the following responses:
1. Multinational corporations do not create jobs for the majority of citizens. In more than 400 years of its history, corporate capitalism has never created meaningful work or a decent standard of living for the majority of citizens. Multinational corporations destroy US and global employment opportunities by currency gambling, by forced austerity via IMF and WTC predatory loans, by off-shoring jobs to cheap labor markets in Asia, India, Central America and Mexico à la NAFTA, CAFTA, and the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Act (TPP), for which President Obama is currently seeking prior fast-track trade authority to secretly finalize the TPP and Trade-in-Services Agreement (TISA).
2. More importantly, multinational corporate strategy is committed to eliminating half of all existing forms of employment across all sectors by automation tied to volatile and arbitrary technological changes. This is why it favors creating only high-tech jobs that meet the wants of corporations instead of the needs of citizen populations they purportedly - but in reality, do not - serve.
MORE:
[ http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/3 ... itarianism ]
+ + + + + + + +
WHAT IS TISA?
Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)
[ http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/tisa/ ]
+ + + +
TISA leak reveals US demands would impact net neutrality, data protection
[ http://canadians.org/blog/tisa-leak-rev ... protection ]
... of US proposals to the ongoing Trade In Services Agreement (TISA) reveals that US negotiators are seeking sweeping obligations that would ... a specific country. The Trade In Services Agreement (TISA) is an agreement being negotiated in secret on the sidelines of the ...
+ + + +
'Free trade' deals a threat to health care for all
[ http://canadians.org/blog/free-trade-de ... h-care-all ]
... another poison pill . Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) This agreement is being negotiated on the sidelines of the World ... Herald reports , "According to a leaked document, [TISA] negotiations ... will include discussion of wide-ranging reforms to ...
MORE:
[ http://canadians.org/search/node/TISA ]
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9966
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
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