13 Jan Updates on TPP & Fast Track Legislation from Alyssa Burgin, Texas Drought Project
Image Credit Container ships via cdrin / Shutterstock.com via thediplomat.com "Showtime for the TPP" by John VerWey
Fast Track/TPP vote coming now–Call Congressmen Doggett and Castro
By Alyssa Burgin, Executive Director, Texas Drought Project
Any day now, Congress will vote on fast-track authority for the Trans Pacific Partnership. In Austin, we must thank Congressman Lloyd Doggett for his unwavering opposition to fast-track authority–he understands what is at stake. But at the same time, we should admonish a rising star in the Democratic Party, Congressman Joaquin Castro, who has supported this at every turn. Congressman Castro may not be Austin's representative now, but if he plans to garner its support for future statewide (or greater) office, then he should know where we stand.
Fast-track authority, which is what is to be voted on soon, will be THE VOTE on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. After that is done, our elected officials will not be able to modify, limit or cancel the agreement. We must act now.
Unfamiliar with all the details of the TPP? Well, it's opposed by labor, workers' rights groups, human rights' groups, Public Citizen, the Fair Trade Coalition, and every environmental group in America as far as we have been able to see. It would start a race to the bottom on environmental regulations and working conditions, food safety and even Liquid Natural Gas rules for mining and shipping–something that will soon directly impact our state. And it will resolve disputes through an international tribunal, thus undermining US sovereignty. We cannot let this happen!
You may contact Congressman Doggett through his Washington office, (202)
225-4865
We also ask that you contact Congressman Joaquin Castro. Congressman Castro has favored the agreement from the beginning, apparently listening to arguments that Toyota would withdraw its operations from his district if it does not go into effect. Ironically, the chase for the bottom line and the almighty dollar would instead lead Toyota to leave San Antonio with the passing of the agreement, because they could make a great deal more money in production in Southeast Asia. We all know that Congressman Castro has his eye on higher office and a greater role in our government; let's not let him forget that his responsibility is to the people, not to the corporations. Rep. Castro's trade staffer is Ben Thomas–please contact him and tell him you . Phone 202-225-3236,email is Ben.Thomas@mail.house.gov
To read more about the TPP, read any of the following:
http://www.citizenstrade.org/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/
http://thehill.com/blogs/
The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Something both the right and the left can oppose
by Alyssa Burgin, Executive Director, Texas Drought Project
and Bob Cash, Executive Director, Texas Fair Trade Coalition
Finally, an idea that both the right and the left should wholeheartedly oppose–the newest international trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which Congress can put on "fast track" status with a vote expected in the next weeks. Often described as "NAFTA on steroids," this slick package deal has elements which send millions more US jobs overseas, usurp US sovereignty, and obliterate environmental laws, labor protections and food safety laws. It has something for everyone to fear.
Congress will vote on it, but our representatives had no part in its making, as it was largely written behind the closed doors of trans-national corporations, its details hidden away, not just from the public and the press, but from our representatives. Only a few US congresspersons have seen it and under a threat of legal action have been forbidden to share what they saw with the American people. At the same time six hundred US corporate advisors were given free access to the text as it was being negotiated.
All trade agreements like NAFTA have started with bright promises of more jobs and more exports, but now we have a twenty year experience with NAFTA that paints a very different picture. President Clinton said NAFTA would create 180,000 US jobs annually and lead to a huge increase in US exports. The reality of NAFTA is that there has been over a 1M net job loss and our trade deficit with Mexico and Canada has grown from 25B annually to over 180B annually. Now the Obama administration Is pushing for the passage of TPP, which is much larger than NAFTA, with more implications for US jobs, while many, many Americans are already struggling with unemployment, lower wages and the loss of pensions. The job loss from all free trade agreements and to China after it entered the WTO is, by a conservative estimate, over 3.7M including 250,000 just in Texas. What is our future if this continues?
Another huge issue that should anger every American, regardless of party affiliation, is that disputes will be handled by an international court, thereby removing any shred of American sovereignty. The investor state provision, also contained in NAFTA and most trade agreements, means that all our laws, regulations and court decisions can be overturned in international tribunals, not US courts, if a foreign corporation challenges them as a barrier to free trade. The judges in the international tribunals are often corporate lawyers from the same corporations that wrote much of NAFTA and the TPP.
Another concern with the TPP is that it severely weakens our food safety standards. Many TPP countries have much weaker standards and in the TPP there is an obligation that guarantees "equivalence," stating that no party to it can require that imported food meet their domestic standards. In regards to medicines it helps extend patents for many years thus denying all the people under TPP rule access to affordable generic medicines. TPP has other provisions weakening our ability to regulate our financial institutions and putting the global food supplies in fewer and fewer hands, and a public procurement provision to prevent governments from instituting public purchasing preferences designed to keep taxpayer dollars circulating in local economies.
Over 53% of Americans think the US should either renegotiate NAFTA or get out. Only 15% support our staying in NAFTA. We have learned a lesson from NAFTA that should be applied to the TPP. It's time for the TPP, forged in darkness, to be examined in the light of NAFTA’s reality. As congressional action looms, it's time for members to be held accountable and asked to protect American jobs and our democracy from growing corporate power.
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