Post by editorialist12 on Nov 21, 2015 9:53:03 GMT -8
I am submitting excerpts from an article written by Diana Kepus about the dangers of passing the foreign trade bill known as TTP along with other similar legislation. To read her full article click on this link:
newswithviews.com/Kepus/diane135.htm
"Here are the excerpts, although I have changed a couple of words to fit my format in writing about this dangerous legislation:
"The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a secretive, multinational trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement. The focus of this trade agreement is between the countries of US, Japan, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, and Brunei Darussalam. The TPP also contains a chapter on intellectual property covering copyright, trademarks, and patents.
"Dangers: 1) Intellectual Property Chapter: Leaked draft texts of the agreement show that the IP chapter would have extensive negative ramifications for users’ freedom of speech, right to privacy and due process, and hinder peoples' abilities to innovate.
"(2) Lack of Transparency: The entire process has shut out multi-stakeholder participation and is shrouded in secrecy.
"The TPP goes further than just trade agreements raising significant concerns about citizens’ freedom of expression, due process, innovation, the future of the Internet’s global infrastructure, and the right of sovereign nations to develop policies and laws that best meet their domestic priorities. In sum, the TPP puts at risk some of the most fundamental rights that enable access to knowledge for the world’s citizens
"Since the draft text of the agreement has never been officially released to the public, we know from leaked documents, such as the May 2014 draft of the TPP Intellectual Property Chapter, US negotiators are pushing for the adoption of copyright measures far more restrictive than currently required by international treaties, including the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
"You MUST ask yourself if the TPP is supposedly as great for Americans as the legislators are saying, then why is everything being done BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.
"This massive deal is actually not about trade. It's about 14 things we’ve been able to learn about and trade is the smallest piece of it.
"One strong hint is buried in the fine print of the closely guarded draft. Take the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision in which corporations can sue government if they pass laws that affect their bottom line. The suit is then resolved not by a court of law, but by an external body. Agreeing to ISDS in this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty.
"ISDS would allow foreign companies to challenge U.S. laws — and potentially to pick up huge payouts from taxpayers — without ever stepping foot in a U.S. court. Here’s how it would work. Imagine that the United States bans a toxic chemical that is often added to gasoline because of its health and environmental consequences. If a foreign company that makes the toxic chemical opposes the law, it would normally have to challenge it in a U.S. court. But with ISDS, the company could skip the U.S. courts and go before an international panel of arbitrators. If the company won, the ruling couldn’t be challenged in U.S. courts, and the arbitration panel could require American taxpayers to cough up millions — and even billions — of dollars in damages and still deal with the toxic chemical.
"It is our Republican controlled Congress politicians laying out the groundwork for things to come with Senate bill 995, ‘Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015’, an updated version of the Trade Promotion Authority legislation that expired in 2007. With this legislation, Congress establishes an extensive set of priorities for our country’s trade agreements. It will help promote high-standard trade agreements for the 21st-century global economy and will encourage our TPP negotiating partners to now put their best offers forward for improved access to their markets for U.S. goods and services and to bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion. The TPA will also provide for efficient and timely consideration by Congress of the TPP which will, assuming the agreement is in our national interest and is approved by Congress, work to the benefit of the American economy and jobs.
"The Republican House has an exact matching bill currently being discussed as H.R. 1890 written by another political prostitute Paul Ryan.
"Senate Bill 995, written by Sen. Orin Hatch, would also allow the president, any president, the authority to enter into multilateral and bilateral trade agreements without going through the approval of the Senate. This would extend through July, 2018 but the president could request a 3 year extension."
Therefore please contact your Congress critters to vote no on this treasonous legislation.
t