Post by editorialist12 on May 4, 2016 8:26:30 GMT -8
It is imperative that the public know what the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) Agreement is all about and the terrible harm it will do to this country if passed. Here are the evils of this agreement:
Make it easier for corporations to offshore American jobs. The TPP includes investor protections that reduce the risks and costs of relocating production to low-wage countries. The pro-free trade Cato Institute considers these terms a subsidy on offshoring, noting that they lower the risk premium of relocating to venues that American firms might otherwise consider. It would ban Buy American procurement preferences, offshoring our tax dollars instead of reinvesting them in our communities to create jobs here.
Push down our wages by throwing Americans into competition with Vietnamese workers making less than 65 cents an hour. The TPP’s labor rights provisions largely replicate the terms included in past pacts since the “May 2007” reforms forced on then-president George W. Bush by congressional Democrats. A 2014 Government Accountability Office report found that these labor rights provisions had failed to improve conditions on the ground in countries subject to the terms in past U.S. free trade agreements, including Colombia, which also was subjected to an additional Labor Action Plan similar to what the Obama administration has negotiated with Vietnam.
Flood us with unsafe imported food. The TPP would allow new trade challenges against our safety standards and inspection policies. This is especially dangerous given that Vietnam and Malaysia import massive quantities of shrimp to the U.S., significant amounts of which are now rejected as unsafe under current policies.
Raise our medicine prices, giving big pharmaceutical corporations new monopoly rights to keep lower cost generics drugs off the market. The TPP would roll back the modest reforms of the “May 2007” standards with respect to trade pact patent terms.
Include notorious violators of international human rights. In Brunei, LGBT individuals and single mothers can be stoned to death under Sharia law. In Malaysia, tens of thousands of ethnic minorities are trafficked through the jungle in modern slavery.
Eliminate most of the seven Multilateral Environmental Agreements that are the standards for the Environment Chapter. Past U.S. trade pacts have required the terms of seven key environmental treaties to be implemented and enforced by agreement signatories. The TPP eliminates all but one of these.
Expand the scope of domestic policies that can be challenged by corporations, including allowing investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) enforcement of World Trade Organization intellectual property terms and new challenges to financial regulations. This is especially dangerous because the TPP would double U.S. exposure to ISDS challenges – empowering an additional 9,200 corporation to use ISDS tribunal to attack our laws.
Therefore contact your members of Congress to oppose this traitorous agreement.