TPP is a new term about which we should be aware. It stands for Trans-Pacific Partnership. The United States is negotiating to join this partnership. The objective of TPP is to improve trade in the countries located on the Pacific Ocean rim. This is a fine objective but the devil roams freely among the details.
Recently the Congress refused to accept a United Nations treaty that would assure valid treatment for injured and paraplegic individuals no matter where they traveled in the world. The objection was that the United States would be subservient to United Nations law.
These folks haven’t read the TPP agreement. In a few words, if the United States joins the TPP, all member countries have the right to engage in business activities in any other member country without regard to national or local property rights, safety regulations, labor law, or scientific awareness of human danger by disease and animal/vegetable infestations. To the mariner, the language of this agreement appears to be written solely for business and corporate advantage. It supersedes US policies that protect human rights and the right to independent government. Members can ignore any inconvenient policy that thwarts corporate interest.
The mariner lifted the following content from the Wikipedia:
“Anti-globalization advocates accuse the TPP of going far beyond the realm of tariff reduction and trade promotion, granting unprecedented power to corporations and infringing upon consumer, labour, and environmental interests.
One widely republished article claims the TPP is “a wish list of the 1%” and that “of the 26 chapters under negotiation, only a few have to do directly with trade. The other chapters enshrine new rights and privileges for major corporations while weakening the power of nation states to oppose them.”
Intellectual property provisions
See also: Trans-Pacific Partnership Intellectual Property Provisions
There has been criticism of some provisions relating to the enforcement of patents and copyrights alleged to be present in leaked copies of the US proposal for the agreement:
The proposals have been accused of being excessively restrictive, providing intellectual property restraints beyond those in the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement and Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). A coalition of non-profit organisations, businesses and over 100,000 people have spoken out through a campaign called “Stop The Trap”.
In spring 2013, over 30 Internet freedom organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and OpenMedia.ca, came together to call for a ‘Fair Deal’ on the TPP’s intellectual property provisions. The coalition says proposals in the TPP would take a major toll on society, by restricting innovation and by forcing ISPs to police copyright. Over 15000 citizens have joined the Fair Deal campaign.
A number of United States Congresspeople,[65] including Senator Bernard Sanders[66] and Representatives Henry Waxman, Sander M. Levin, John Conyers, Jim McDermott,[67] John Lewis, Pete Stark, Charles B. Rangel, Earl Blumenauer, and Lloyd Doggett, have expressed concerns about the effect the TPP requirements would have on access to medicine. In particular, they are concerned that the TPP focuses on protecting intellectual property to the detriment of efforts to provide access to affordable medicine in the developing world, particularly Vietnam, going against the foreign policy goals of the Obama administration and previous administrations. Additionally, they worry that the TPP would not be flexible enough to accommodate existing non-discriminatory drug reimbursement programs and the diverse health systems of member countries. “
There is much more to be studied in this agreement; certainly it needs some sunshine on many hidden but damaging rights and privileges. Corporate representatives dominate the negotiating teams and want the language to be kept secret. The news agencies should be pursuing the TPP activity in the interest of everyone in the US. Other countries should be aware as well.”
While the guise of the TPP is to improve trade, growth, and to raise the economy in member countries, it comes at great cost to the member citizens. Especially citizens in the US and other developed nations who have fought hard for the value of the right to vote, women’s rights, clean air, new energy policy, and protection of the very soil of the nation. Global warming has no place in the TPP.
The TPP does not represent the globalization of nations; it represents global domination by corporations.
Three cheers for the 1 percent.
Ancient Mariner