Yesterday, Wednesday 29 January 2014, the leader of congressional
Democrats, Harry Reid — the U.S. Senate Majority Leader — came out
publicly saying, “I’m against fast track.” This
means that unlike the international-trade treaties that were rammed
through Congress under George W. Bush, Obama’s trade deals won’t be —
and that they are thus now practically dead.
The TPP was a disastrous deal for America and the details, mostly keep secret by this administration, deserve the full inspection of the American people.
The new Asia and European trade agreements are great for our trading partners not so great for the US. When will our elected leaders realize a fair trade agreement will level the playing field?
ReplyDeleteHarry Ried is in the pay of the trade unions. They are the ones who stand to lose from this deal. If you are pro trade union, then you oppose this agreement.
ReplyDeleteTheirs ‘economic rebalancing’ and then there is ‘economic rebalancing.’ Harry may have done this for his own self interest and enrichment but I see no reason why this deal is good for anyone and for that reason, regardless of motive, I thank him.
DeleteThe TPP is no better for the US economy than NAFTA or any of the other ‘Free Trade’ agreements. The treaty itself, or at least what little has been leaked, shows a considerable amount of tariff protection for certain industries in the US but those protections appear protect corporations more than the workers. Apparently there are extensions to pharma patents and even surgical procedures... While there is wording that provides easy access to some pharmaceuticals, others that strongly impact populations in Africa and South America are specifically excluded. It has strong protections for an already broken patient system and dubious extensions of protection for copy and intellectual rights which again attempt to cloud Internet freedom with provisions which replicates many of the surveillance and enforcement provisions from the shelved SOPA and ACTA treaties which failed in congress. The document calls for ‘criminal penalties’ for willful counterfeiting or piracy even if it results in no financial gain... Criminal penalties? .... Requires active participation of ISP’s in the enforcement of these provisions.
The problem here is the tact that is being taken to circumvent state laws by using international treaty power. This is becoming more frequent in the federal enforcement of what use to be traditionally state laws.... like rather than a state trying a woman for attempted murder with a poison, the feds arrest her for contravening an international treaty on chemical weapons.
If this agreement were about ‘free trade’ why has the US enlisted the support of so many trans pacific countries but excluded China? This is more about the extension of the federal in the US, protectionism for certain corporations and a blocking maneuver to Chinas economic growth.
Besides... why in the world would you support a trade agreement that was designed without your representatives involvement and done almost completely in secret... hum... must need to be redacted first in the name of ‘national security’. Sorry, but it’s time we had more people involvement in this country and just a little less muscle from the corporations...
I think... my opinion... that if your are for free trade, you are opposed to this agreement.