As readers probably know, New Zealand put the full text of the TPP online yesterday. There were some technical issues in getting the docs (lots of subsections), no doubt in part due to the servers being accessed heavily.
Reader Synoia has made all the TPP files available on Dropbox in PDF form, zippped (link here).
Here’s the directory of files in the zip, which as you can see, includes the Annexes:
TPP-Chapter-Summary-Labour-1.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Administration-and-Institutional-Provisions.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Australia-General-Notes-to-Tariff-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Australia-Tariff-Elimination-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Brunei-General-Notes-to-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Brunei-Tariff-Elimination-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Canada-General-Notes-to-Tariff-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Canada-Tariff-Elimination-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Chile-General-Notes-to-Tariff-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Chile-Tariff-Elimination-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Competition.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Competitiveness-and-Business-Facilitation.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Cooperation-and-Capacity-Building.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Cross-Border-Trade-in-Services(1).pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Cross-Border-Trade-in-Services.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Customs-Administration-and-Trade-Facilitation.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Development.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Dispute-Settlement.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Electronic-Commerce.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Environment.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Exceptions-and-General-Provisions.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Final-Provisions.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Financial-Services.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Government-Procurement.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Initial-Provisions-and-General-Definitions.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Intellectual-Property.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Investment.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Japan-Appendix-A-Tariff-Rate-Quotas(1).pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Japan-Appendix-A-Tariff-Rate-Quotas.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Japan-Appendix-B-1-Agricultural-Safeguard-Measures.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Japan-Appendix-B-2-Forest-Good- Safeguard-Measure.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Japan-Appendix-C-Tariff-Differentials.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Japan-Appendix-D-Appendix-between-Japan-and-the-United-States-on-Motor-Vehicle-Trade.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Japan-Appendix-E-Appendix-between-Japan-and-Canada-on-Motor-Vehicle-Trade.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Japan-General-Notes-to-Tariff-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Japan-Tariff-Elimination-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Labour-US-BN-Labor-Consistency-Plan.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Labour-US-MY-Labor-Consistency-Plan.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Labour-US-VN-Plan-for-Enhancement-of-Trade-and-Labor-Relations.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Malaysia-Appendix-A-Tariff-Rate-Quotas(1).pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Malaysia-Appendix-A-Tariff-Rate-Quotas.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Malaysia-General-Notes-to-Tariff-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Mexico-Appendix-A-B-and-C-Tariff-Rate-Quotas-and-Tariff-Differentials.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Mexico-General-Notes-to-Tariff-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Mexico-Tariff-Elimination-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-National-Treatment-and-Market-Access.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-New-Zealand-General-Notes-to-Tariff-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-New-Zealand-Tariff-Elimination-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Peru-General-Notes-to-Tariff-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Peru-Tariff-Elimination-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Preamble.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Regulatory-Coherence.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Rules-of-Origin-and-Origin-Procedures.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Sanitary-and-Phytosanitary-Measures.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Singapore-General-Notes-to-Tariff-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Singapore-Tariff-Elimination-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Small-and-Medium-Sized-Enterprises.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-State-Owned-Enterprises-and-Designated-Monopolies.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Technical-Barriers-to-Trade.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Telecommunications.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Textiles-and-Apparel.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Trade-Remedies.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Transparency-and-Anti-corruption.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-US-Appendix-A-Tariff-Rate-Quotas.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-US-Appendix-B-Agricultural-Safeguard-Measures.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-US-Appendix-C-Tariff-Differentials.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-US-Appendix-D-Motor-Vehicle-Trade.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-US-Appendix-E-Earned-Import-Allowance-Program.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-US-General-Notes-to-Tariff-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-US-Tariff-Elimination-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Viet-Nam-Appendix-A-Tariff-Rate-Quotas.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Viet-Nam-General-Notes-to-Tariff-Schedule.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Viet-Nam-Tariff-Elimination-Schedule.pdfTPP-Final-Text-Annex-12-A-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons-Australia.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-12-A-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons-Canada.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-12-A-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons-Chile.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-12-A-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons-Japan(1).pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-12-A-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons-Japan.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-12-A-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons-Malaysia.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-12-A-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons-Mexico.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-12-A-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons-New-Zealand.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-12-A-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons-Peru.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-12-A-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons-Singapore.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-12-A-Temporary-Entry-for-Business-Persons-Viet-Nam.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-Australia.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-Brunei.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-Canada.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-Chile.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-Japan.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-Malaysia.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-Mexico.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-New-Zealand.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-Peru.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-Singapore.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-United-States.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-15-A-Government-Procurement-Viet-Nam.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-3-A-Appendix-1-Automotive.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-3-A-Product-Specific-Rules.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-4-A-Appendix-Short-Supply-List.pdf
TPP-Final-Text-Annex-4-A-Final-Textiles-Product-Specific-Rule.pdf
marxmarv has put them up in HTML here.
The Washington Post has also put up the main text and made it searchable (hooray!) but they do not include the annexes, while the links above do. Perhaps a motivated reader will either make the annexes searchable or alert us to a site that has made all the documents searchable.
I also hope knowledgeable readers will focus on sections where they have expertise. One of the issues with an agreement this complex is you need to have an understanding of how it affects existing regulations and prevalent practices and contract terms. This is one of the reasons that Public Citizen has proven to be so valuable over time. They’ve been dogging trade deals for years and their focus on this topic enables them to give informed, fast responses. I hope you’ll find time to make a donation to them, even a small one.
The text of the Public Citizen press release on the TPP is now over 12 hours old, yet it is still the best overview:
Pact’s Fate in Congress Uncertain at Best; Long-Awaited Text Reveals Gaps Between Administration Claims and Actual TPP Terms On Key Congressional, Public Concerns WASHINGTON – Today’s long-awaited release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (TPP) reveals that the pact replicates many of the most controversial terms of past pacts that promote job offshoring and push down U.S wages while further expanding the scope of the controversial investor-state system and rolling back improvements on access to affordable medicines and environmental standards that congressional Democrats forced on the George W. Bush administration in 2007.
“Apparently, the TPP’s proponents resorted to such extreme secrecy during negotiations because the text shows TPP would offshore more American jobs, lower our wages, flood us with unsafe imported food and expose our laws to attack in foreign tribunals,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “When the administration says it used the TPP to renegotiate NAFTA, few expected that meant doubling down on the worst job-killing, wage-suppressing NAFTA terms, expanding limits on food safety and rolling back past reforms on environmental standards and access to affordable drugs.”
On some key issues, the text reveals provisions that will cost TPP support from members of Congress who supported the narrow passage of Fast Track trade authority this summer, and affirm for the many members of Congress who backed past trade deals but opposed Fast Track that the TPP must be stopped.
“Many in Congress said they would support the TPP only if, at a minimum, it included past reforms made to trade pact intellectual property rules affecting access to affordable medicines. But the TPP rolls back that past progress by requiring new marketing exclusivities and patent term extensions, and provides pharmaceutical firms with new monopoly rights for biotech drugs, including many new and forthcoming cancer treatments,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program. “The terms in this final TPP text will contribute to preventable suffering and death abroad, and may constrain the reforms that Congress can consider to reduce Americans’ medicine prices at home.”
The text also confirms that demands made by Congress and key constituencies were not fulfilled.
“From leaks, we knew quite a bit about the agreement, but in chapter after chapter the final text is worse than we expected with the demands of the 500 official U.S. trade advisors representing corporate interests satisfied to the detriment of the public interest,” said Wallach.
Today’s text release confirms concerns about TPP that were based on earlier leaks and reveals ways in which the TPP rolls back past public interest reforms to the U.S. trade model and expands anti-public-interest provisions demanded by the hundreds of official U.S. corporate trade advisers:
Worse anti-public-interest provisions relative to past U.S. trade pacts
- The TPP Intellectual Property Chapter would roll back the “May 2007” reforms for access to medicines.
- The TPP Environment Chapter would roll back the “May 2007” reforms by eliminating most of the seven Multilateral Environmental Agreements that past pacts have enforced.
- The TPP Investment Chapter would expand the scope of policies that can be challenged and the basis for such challenges, including for the first time ever allowing ISDS enforcement of World Trade Organization intellectual property terms and new challenges to financial regulations.
- With Japanese, Australian and other firms newly empowered to launch ISDS attacks against the United States, the TPP would double U.S. ISDS exposure with more than 9,200 additional subsidiaries operating here of corporation from TPP nations newly empowered to launch ISDS cases against the U.S. government. (About 9,500 U.S. subsidiaries have ISDS rights under ALL existing U.S. investor-state-enforced pacts.)
- The TPP E-Commerce Chapter would undermine consumer privacy protections for sensitive personal health, financial and other data when it crosses borders by exposing such policies to challenge as a violation of the TPP limits on regulation of data flows.
- TPP “Sanitary and Phytosanitary” chapter terms would impose new limits on imported foods safety relative to past pacts. This includes new challenges to U.S. border inspection systems that can be launched based on extremely subjective requirements that inspections must “limited to what is reasonable and necessary” as determine by a TPP tribunal. New language that replicates the industry demand for a so-called Rapid Response Mechanism that requires border inspectors to notify exporters for every food safety check that finds a problem and give the exporter the right to bring a challenge to that port inspection determination meaning new right to bring a trade challenge to individual border inspection decisions (including potentially laboratory or other testing) that second-guesses U.S. inspectors and creates a chilling effect that would deter rigorous oversight of imported foods.
Anti-public-interest provisions that are the same as past U.S. pacts
- The TPP Investment Chapter would eliminate many of the risks and costs of relocating American jobs to low-wage countries, incentivizing more American job offshoring.
- The TPP procurement chapter would offshore our tax dollars to create jobs overseas instead of at home by giving firms operating in any TPP nation equal access to many U.S. government procurement contracts, rather than us continuing to give preference to local firms to build and maintain our public libraries, parks, post offices and universities.
- Contrary to Fast Track negotiating objectives, the TPP would grant foreign firm greater rights that domestic firms enjoy under U.S. law and in U.S. courts. One class of interests – foreign firms – could privately enforce this public treaty by skirting domestic laws and courts to challenge U.S. federal, state and local decisions and policies on grounds not available in U.S. law and do so before extrajudicial ISDS tribunals authorized to order payment of unlimited sums of taxpayer dollars.
- There are no new safeguards that limit ISDS tribunals’ discretion to issue ever-expanding interpretations of governments’ obligations to investors and order compensation on that basis. The text reveals the same “safeguard” Annexes and terms that were included in U.S. pacts since the 2005 Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) that have failed to rein in ISDS tribunals. CAFTA tribunals have simply ignored the “safeguard” provisions that are replicated in the TPP and as with past pacts, in the TPP such tribunal conduct is not subject to appeal.
- The TPP would ban the use of capital controls and other macroprudential financial regulations used to prevent speculative bubbles and financial crises.
Please see a bullet point analysis of key TPP investment, food safety, labor and environmental, market access, rules of origin, procurement, and other provisions prepared by labor and public interest experts for more details. More detailed analyses of each chapter will be available next week.
The TPP can take effect only if the U.S. Congress approve it given the rules about conditions for the TPP to go into effect. The TPP’s fate in Congress is uncertain at best given that since the trade authority vote, the small bloc of members of the U.S. House of Representatives who made the narrow margin of passage possible have expressed concerns that the text release shows were not addressed.
Ten U.S. presidential candidates have pushed anti-TPP messages in their campaigning, stoking U.S. voters’ ire about the pact.
An unprecedented number and wide array of organizations oppose any attempt to railroad the TPP through Congress by using the Fast Track process. Groups united on this extend well beyond labor unions and include consumer, Internet freedom, senior, health, food safety, environmental, human rights, faith, LGBTQ, student and civil rights organizations.
“Now that Congress and the public can scrutinize the actual text, the reality that it fails to meet Congress’ demands and its terms would be harmful to most Americans will replace the administration’s myth-based sales job for TPP, further dimming the TPP’s prospects in Congress,” Wallach said.
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Will Congress adopt a strategy of ramming this down our throats with lightning speed, counting on the people to remain passive in the face of a brutal fait accompli? Or will they adopt a strategy of appearing to debate it for months and months, and only then ram it down our throats – shamming reluctance and caution along the way, and counting on the people to gradually tire of being outraged, to waver in their opposition and then slowly resign themselves to the inevitable? Ah, the suspense is killing me.
Aaaaah, yes… my thoughts exactly, Barmitt. Except perhaps the ramming parts. They won’t have to force anything. Just vote in the middle of the night on a Friday. Then the prepared scripted mouthpieces do their HOORAY bipartisan happy dance on Sunday. Monday’s transcripted press release media coverage…
This process has worked well on a wide variety of unpopular issues. There’s a LONG list.
Never mind the alternative media truth telling, the skilled unpacking of each horror to come, or the outraged comment sections. Keep in mind complex, opaque, thick, multi page documents are that way by design.
This is going to require good upscale popcorn with sea salt and European organic grass fed butter.
Thanks to NC, we’ve got a front row seat and backstage all access passes.
Intensive negotiations will be held within the Democratic caucus to see which members
who voted for Trade Promotion Authority will now be allowed
to pretend to oppose the TPP by voting against it.
On the other hand, 2016 is an election year, and the voters are said to be in a truculent mood. Those facts may put The Fear into the hearts of the legislature, regardless of the payoffs they are promised.
It will occur as the obvious here, but the brazenness of Obama and the cohorts in trying to float this crap barge.
After reading the “Public Citizen” bullet-point analysis, it is undeniable that the mentality underlying the stipulations and language of the treaty is “the winner takes it all”.
I tried to read it honestly….. in between retching, searching for the sign from the antichrist, twiddling my rosaries and praying for the future of my children.
Nailed it!
Excellent work Yves.
Do you have any suggestion on the (limited) citizen action we could do to decrease the likelihood of the TPP being passed by Congress?
Here’s my modest suggestion, although it is likely that you or other NC commenters might have a superior approach, since I have minimal experience in communicating with Congresscritters:
1. NC/Yves highlight this or whichever TPP overview article you recommend to mention to the Congressperson’s office. If you have a URL link shortener, something like n.c/tpp or some such, that would help in mentioning said article on the phone conversation
2. Call the US Rep, & 2 US Senators. Reference the TPP article. To override authoritarian tendencies of many USians, reference Yves’s credentials as Harvard MBA, prominent economics nonfiction book author, guest expert interviewed on PBS’ Bill Moyer’s show, & financial services executive. (Note that personally I have experienced a few examples where if one describes an idea that is counter to the “Conventional Wisdom” 2 Big Parties & BigMedia, a person will look at me like an Alex Jones-type incorrect conspiracy insane person. But if I drop reference to a particular recognized prominent expert communicating said idea, they MIGHT be willing to actually consider said idea)
3. Threaten that if the Congresscritter does NOT publish a “press release” on their website or some similar such documentation promising to vote NO on TPP, I will vote for their primary challenger (if 1 exists), and in the general election I will vote for the Green candidate (if 1 exists), or if not, the challenger from the opposite party, even if from the loathsome R Team.
What do yall think?
Big thanks again Yves for reporting on TPP.
It is probable that politicians have neither time nor inclination to read through all the extensive analyses of the TPP that they will receive.
On the other hand, they might be quite receptive to selective analyses that target domains they are sensitive to, because their constituencies will be directly impacted, and hence their chances to hold onto their seat in the Congress.
For instance, making it clear that the TPP will make it more interesting to import parts or cars from other countries will probably make a politician in a State that succeeded in attracting automotive or aircraft manufacturing plants take notice. If jobs (no matter how degraded) and firms in that sector go up in smoke, he will not like it.
After all, if such a treaty is to be derailed, it will probably not happen on overall principles, but because of a multitude of very specific interests that it tramples upon.
Has any association compiled some kind of matrix of congress(wo)man X main economic interests (s)he represents? That would help.
This is an important observation. Nearly every congressional district would lose jobs. There would be vastly increased foreign content in “domestic” autos, elimination of “buy American” provisions for defense spending, highway construction, etc. A great talking point: “Do we want to send U.S. troops into harm’s way with nothing but made-in-Malaysia gear?”
Even some neocons in Congress might be alarmed to learn– that the U.S. will lose the ability to maintain control over critical components of our “national security” infrastructure, and that foreign companies will find it easier to mine big data, on all aspects of U.S. citizens’ lives.
There are organizations that aggregate and report on the campaign contributions made to each Congresscritter. (Can’t remember names at the moment.) This is probably the best way to see who rings their bells. Reviewing their personal financial disclosures can provide additional information concerning their invested assets.
One is OpenSecrets.org, John.
Thanks very much, wendy. I know of them. Just couldn’t pull a name out of my memory yesterday.
I would second this notion and consider tying this directly to NAFTA. NAFTA is real and its effects have already been felt in many areas. Complex as this agreement is, it seems to be correct to describe it as setting the bar even lower than NAFTA notably in the manufacturing thresholds, environmental laws, labor laws, and level U.S. Control.
Even the pro-Clinton Dems hate NAFTA, they all expected Obama to act on his promise to fix it. This, however, would make it worse.
Exactly right. Describe this agreement as “Nafta on steroids” or some such. Highlight its provisions to ship jobs overseas, to frustrate getting affordable medicine, to undermine our national sovereignty. Use this simple (but not simplistic) language to agitate your family, friends and coworkers to call appropriate Congresscritter. Then do it again in two or three weeks. Then again. Then do it again and again. This can work. Wringing your hands in cynicism will guarantee its passage. Don’t over think this. We can win if we collectively put our backs into it.
Great ideas. If congress passes this they will have just made themselves largely irrelevant. The power in congress is the power to pass laws and allocate moneys. Once foreign tribunals can strike or block laws congress’s power and legitimacy is gone in fact. And they would be dumb enough to vote for their own displacement as a powerful legislative body?
Related, wondering if there aren’t grounds for impeachment in this agreement?
I worked in politics for a few years but volunteered for years prior to getting a pay check. Politicians do not err like to hear from their constituents. If enough people call in, not sign some petition, but call their office OR write real letters then they’ll listen. The number is actually quite low. If a few hundred in a district call/write about this issue then they’ll be worried. It really is amazing that the number of calls to make them worry is that low.
At the state level it is even lower. The people I worked with would change their position or consider a change in a position if 10 or 20 people called in about an issue. Voter turn out is so low at the state and local level that 10 or 20 people can change an election.
I’m moving to Oregon or Washington next year so I’ll have to add them to my list. If you hate this bill then take the time to call. Mention Yves, Public Citizen and this article.
One benefit of Bernie running is that he can highlight this issue which will at least keep it in the public eye.
And one thing about Yves, I do not always agree with her but I admire and really respect her decision to speak out on this and so many other issues. Many people with her technical knowledge buy into the system completely or are so jaded that they do not bother to speak out. I will have to pledge a decent amount if this site is still around after I’m out of med school.
Recall the Harvard Public Health Profs’ study Lambert described, where the Profs estimated that relative to CAN-style Medicare For All, lack of access to health care killed ~60K USians with healthcare prevantable conditions before the ACA, and the ACA will “reduce” this USian massacre to “only” ~30K annual deaths by 2022?
Have these Profs or other similar experts similarly estimated USian death toll from the TPP’s pharma related laws on extended-time extortionist price patent-monopolies on life-saving pharma such as anti-cancer pharma, relative to the pre-TPP USian laws status quo? It would not surprise me if it exceeds the aforementioned 30K USian annual deaths, not to mention deaths in the other 11 TPP nations.
Again afaict both the pro-TPP & anti-Medicare For All bipartisan DC poli-trick-ians, like 0bama/H Clinton/P Ryan/McConnell The Turtle, kill (orders of magnitude) more USians than any of the Official Boogeymen Du Jour TM like Al-Qa3da could ever hope to. Do you agree? BTW I have never heard this Inconvenient Truth EVER expressed by the BigPolitrickian nor BigMedia.
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Any chance in hell that if TPP passes, there could be a possible Supreme Court challenge that could nullify the TPP, on the grounds on the multiple TPP provisions that are Unconstitutional, such as the ISDS Kangaroo Court with combined unappointed & unelected Corporate Lawyer “judges”, whose “decision” overrides US law? Have any of the current 9 SC Justices publically opined on TPP? Recall that 0bama was once actually employed as a Constitional Law Prof. On this TPP issue, imho 0bama is more Evil than Stupid.
I think the term for Obama is mendacious. A group of very lucrative and highly influential business interests lined up and told him what they wanted, and he delivered. We must banish all thought of using “the national interest” as a factor in analyzing government actions at this stage of history. All interests that matter today are private interests (with the possible exception of having a big stick to knock foreigners over the head with, and as the F-35 shows, even that is compromised). This will be good for key sectors of American capital (it will make the most profitable ones more profitable, which from the point of view of the Power Elite is Mission Accomplished). The downsides are just collateral damage. We can sell our toxic derivatives and lousy pork products and high fructose corn syrup and mindlessly violent movies and overpriced drugs to all and sundry and literally make a killing off the rubes overseas. That’s what matters. That is, from the point of view of those who run this place, a job well done.
I believe that Public Citizen is preparing to, and has laid some groundwork for, taking the TPP to the Supreme Court. Of course, it has to pass first — which, as has been pointed out here, is unlikely to be a problem.
As Yves suggested, I will contribute to Public Citizen. In fact, I wish there were a way so that I could send my donation to support PC’s work on this to a specific “Fund for the Defense of the American People.” I’d like to write that on a check!
Obama will get a billion dollar payoff if he rams this through.
I know Obama is Obama, but I’m still blown away.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/06/us-trade-tpp-hatch-idUSKCN0SV1XV20151106
U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said on Friday the Obama administration may have to renegotiate parts of a Pacific trade pact in order to win support in Congress.
Wow. Why did Hatch wait until now to say this? He’s one of the elite big shots who has had actual access to the text of the treaty for many months. Whatever his reason, this is good news. Renegotiating such a complex agreement would be very tricky. Pull one thread, and the whole tapestry could unravel.
It may be that he thinks it’s not nasty enough as far as how strongly it compels “our trading partners” to conform to the corporate agenda.
http://thehill.com/special-reports/trans-pacific-partnership-november-4-2015/259069-burden-on-the-administration-to
Orrin is nothing if not tricky. But all of Congress will be deflecting blame with statements like this. The time for negotiating is over. It’s up or down now, right?
Actually, no. Hatch has mentioned negotiation, and Japan has mentioned re-negotiation in five years with some countries. All we can say is that the jockeying for position continues.
Perhaps the countries can negotiate with each other, but the members of Congress can’t negotiate. Under Trade Promotion Authority, it is a straightforward up or down vote. So if Hatch doesn’t like it, he’ll have to vote yes or no, and then press for further negotiations among the countries.
Orrin Hatch: U.S. negotiators may have to renegotiate Pacific trade pact
In other words, it’s still not pro-business enough for the Chamber.
Which corporations and/or industries are behind and driving this?
I’m suspicious, why would it be New Zealand releasing the TPP documents and not the US government? Is this not the official text? Could the official text be even worse?
That’s a good question. Why was it released at all? It doesn’t seem to be a leak. Is it an unabridged version?
I haven’t run a diff on the released versions, but they were multiple and simultaneous: New Zealand, USTR, Obama in Medium. Obama’s article obviously took preparation, so I’d say the release was timed.
So, not a leak. If it had been a leak, I would have expected it to appear on Wikileaks first. It didn’t.
From New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade,
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is one of these treaties. New Zealand was a founding member of one of the TPP’s predecessors.
Thanks David. So, legit for all intents and purposes.
NZ is ahead in time zones.
Maybe someone in the NZ government is not that keen on the agreement,wants to sabotage it?
That’s probably true, but doesn’t account for the NZ release, since the release also took place from other governments and officials, and all required prep time.
One would hope that there are people involved in several countries who would have higher regard for their nation’s sovereignty than their masters’ wishes.
Then again, hope is a thing that died for this citizen a few days after the 2008 election when Obama announced his cabinet and it was a Wall Street alumni meeting.
The president truly is a disgusting shill. Hope and change, indeed. #Sanders2016 #FeelTheBern
#feelthebern indeed.
My new favorite hash tag is #LesserOf2EvilsNOMORE. I either vote for Bernie or write in Bernie (in the general I mean).
The names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of all the US trade negotiators responsible for this atrocity should be published online.
“Many in Congress said they would support the TPP only if, at a minimum, it included past reforms made to trade pact intellectual property rules affecting access to affordable medicines. But the TPP rolls back that past progress by requiring new marketing exclusivities and patent term extensions, and…”
I don’t understand the politics here. Apparently there are known deal-killers laced through the agreement, including provisions that violate the Fast Track law – if Congress is honest, they’ll refuse to consider it under Fast Track (granted,that’s a big if.) Didn’t most of these provisions come from the US negotiators?
What’s the sense of knowingly sticking their thumbs in Congress’s eyes – unless the fix is in? Hate to sound all foily here (OK, sarc), but I see clear evidence that the fix IS in – or else that the administration, or at least the Trade office, is even more incompetent than we thought.
This stuff is impenetrable, it’s actually amazing to see it’s only one or two lines that mean the end of American industry. I’m no economics Ph.D. or J.D., but I’m a pretty smart researcher. It took me nearly 45 minutes to figure out where in the proposed treaty language the bodies are buried.
It’s p. 119 – 120 (Chapter 87, Sections 87.02 – 87.05, 87.06, and 87.07) of “Annex 3-D, Product-Specific Rules of Origin” from Chapter 3 (https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/TPP-Final-Text-Annex-3-A-Product-Specific-Rules.pdf) that takes the 62.5% standard for local origin from NAFTA and slashes to 45% for the automotive industry. Super sneaky, in that they use ‘vehicles’ in the Harmonized System Code Chapter Title (again, Chapter 87) and never ‘cars’ or ‘automobiles’.
And that’s just the auto industry. But this is the elimination of American jobs for no other reason than to funnel profits and the results of ‘productivity increases’ to foreign conglomerates and oligarchs.
And of course the press won’t report on any of this, merely on the process and the horserace bullshit.