{"id":8613,"date":"2015-04-03T17:02:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T17:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=8613"},"modified":"2021-02-19T20:09:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T20:09:54","slug":"the-transpacific-partnership-the-ttip-of-the-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/03\/the-transpacific-partnership-the-ttip-of-the-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP – THE TTIP OF THE PACIFIC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cynthia Phinney of Labor Notes (USA) writes on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she dubs the “NAFTA of the Pacific”. However, we in Europe will also be able to recognise it as the ‘TTIP of the Pacific’.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"th-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SHOWDOWN NEARS ON FAST TRACKING OF THE BIGGEST FREE TRADE DEAL YET\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This spring the battle is coming to a head over several threatened trade deals, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a \u201cNAFTA of the Pacific.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

President Obama announced in this year\u2019s State of the Union address<\/a> that he would ask Congress to grant him fast-track authority for trade agreements with Asia and Europe. The announcement unleashed a torrent of lobbying in favor of Obama\u2019s request, and galvanized fair trade activists against it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThese treaties would override many of our laws,\u201d says Billy Engel, a member of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3 in New York City. \u201cRight away many labor rights and union rights can be totally discarded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organized labor is united in opposition. Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and a series of other agreements on the same model, jobs in one industry after another\u2014manufacturing and call center jobs, for instance\u2014have migrated to countries where companies can get away with paying lower wages.<\/p>\n

The deals are lose-lose. Not only have they destroyed hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S., but they\u2019ve also devastated the economies of the other countries involved. The import of commodity crops from the U.S. has pushed millions of subsistence farmers off their land in Mexico and Central America, driving many to migrate here for miserable, low-wage work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all in the same boat now, and if we don\u2019t do something, we\u2019re all going to sink,\u201d says Joe Tarulli, a steward in Communications Workers (CWA) Local 1106.<\/p>\n

The fast-track mechanism, officially called Trade Promotion Authority, would allow the president to bring Congress a pre-negotiated trade agreement with a strictly limited time for debate\u2014in the past it was just 20 hours\u2014and then only an up or down vote, no amendments. (The exact details of the latest version aren\u2019t yet known, but the concept is the same.)<\/p>\n

Long-delayed fast-track legislation is expected to be introduced in mid-April. The bill may move quickly to avoid the public attention and debate that led to its defeat in the previous Congress.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>TEXTS KEPT SECRET<\/strong><\/p>\n

At least three so-called free-trade agreements are being negotiated with Asia and Europe: the TPP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA).<\/p>\n

Negotiations for the TPP include 12 countries so far\u2014the U.S., Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and Japan\u2014but because of a new feature called a \u201cdocking mechanism,\u201d more could join after it\u2019s ratified. There’s talk that China and Russia, for instance, might join. Thus this could become the largest free trade agreement ever.<\/p>\n

Negotiations for all three pacts are being held in secret. Only those with special clearance can see the texts\u2014and, after seeing them, may not discuss what they\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n

Most, but not all, of the advisers with this clearance represent corporations. Others\u2014a labor leader or two, for example\u2014may see only the texts that U.S. Trade Representative feels are relevant to their area of interest, and can\u2019t even talk with members of their union about what they know.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese treaties have nothing to do with military operations,\u201d Engel said. \u201cThere is no reason for them to be classified secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portions of some of the secret texts have been leaked to the public. From these it appears the agreements follow the same failed model as NAFTA and many agreements since, such as the Central America Free Trade Agreement and the U.S.-Colombia deal.<\/p>\n

The much-touted labor protections are weak. A controversial Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism will allow corporations to sue governments\u2014national, state, or local\u2014over any laws or regulations they consider to constitute a tariff or a \u201cnon-tariff barrier to trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such barriers could include environmental laws, labor standards, \u201cbuy local\u201d regulations\u2014anything that could cut into profits, if it\u2019s not specifically carved out of the agreement. For instance, under a prior trade deal, a private bank sued the government of the Czech Republic for not bailing it out<\/a>\u2014and the bank won. Pharmaceutical companies are eager to use the pending deals to do away with generic drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about trade. It\u2019s about deregulating all these industries,\u201d Tarulli said.<\/p>\n

Resources for Action<\/strong><\/p>\n

To join weekly Sunday evening activist calls, rich with information and action plans, contact Liz Warren, liz@peopledemandingaction.org.<\/p>\n

To connect with your congressional rep visit stopfasttrack.com.<\/p>\n

For a good, readable summary of the issues watch AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka\u2019s March 18 speech \u201cU.S. Trade Policy and American Workers: Finding the Elusive Win-Win Solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

For lots more information and resources, check out:<\/p>\n

Public Citizen Global Trade Watch<\/p>\n

United Steelworkers Trade Resources<\/p>\n

Machinists TPP and Fast Track Resources<\/p>\n

And for those who really want to get into the details and analysis, go to the<\/p>\n

Economic Policy Institute. You will become an expert.<\/p>\n

23.3.15<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This was first posted at:- http:\/\/labornotes.org\/2015\/03\/showdown-nears-fast-tracking-biggest-free-trade-deal-yet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cynthia Phinney of Labor Notes (USA) writes on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she dubs the “NAFTA of the Pacific”. However, we in Europe will also be able to recognise it as the ‘TTIP of the Pacific’.   SHOWDOWN NEARS ON FAST TRACKING OF THE BIGGEST FREE TRADE DEAL YET\u00a0 This spring the battle is coming…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1843,1855,1858,1867,1857,910,1845,1868,8976,1869],"tags":[3751],"class_list":["post-8613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-capitalists-organise","category-exploitation-and-emancipation","category-oppression-liberation","category-emancipation-liberation-and-self-determination","category-environmental-degradation","category-trade-unionism","category-us-imperialism","category-against-imperialism","category-migrant-struggles","category-latin-america-and-caribbean","tag-author-cynthia-phinney"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":2975,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8613"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16983,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8613\/revisions\/16983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}