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<h1 class="txttitle">TPP: A Worldwide Corporate Power Grab of
Enormous Proportions</h1>
<p class="txtauthor">By Laurel Sutherlin, The Understory</p>
<p class="date">12 September 12</p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="cid:part1.00050505.04060709@gmail.com" border="0">s
international trade negotiators gathered this week at a posh golf
resort in rural Virginia to hammer out details of the proposed
Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), they sought to project an image
of inclusion and receptivity to public input. In reality, this
high-stakes global corporate pact, now in its 14th round of
discussions, is heavily guarded by paramilitary teams with machine
guns and helicopters as it is developed behind closed doors under
a dangerous and unprecedented veil of secrecy.</p>
<p class="indent">What the hell is the TPP, you may ask? While it is
among the largest and potentially most important ‘free trade’
agreements the world has ever seen, one can hardly be blamed for
not being familiar with it yet. The corporate cabal behind it,
including names like <a href="http://www.ran.org/cargill"
target="_blank">Cargill</a>, Pfizer, Nike and WalMart, has done
an exceptional job of maintaining an almost total lack of
transparency as they literally design the future we will all
inhabit.</p>
<p class="indent">While 600 corporate lobbyists have been granted
access and input on the draft texts from the beginning, <a
href="http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/248277-lawmakers-call-for-openness-over-ip-measures-in-trade-deal"
target="_blank">even high-ranking members of Congress have been
denied access</a> to the most basic content of what US
negotiators are proposing in our names.</p>
<p class="indent">Demand transparency now! <a
href="http://ran.org/act/nafta-on-steroids?t=u" target="_blank">Write
to US trade representative Ron Kirk and lead Cargil trade
lobbyist Devry Boughner to demand they make the text public</a>.</p>
<p class="indent">Thankfully, draft texts of the proposal have
appeared on Wikileaks and the <a
href="http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2012/06/13/newly-leaked-tpp-investment-chapter-contains-special-rights-for-corporations/"
target="_blank">website of Citizen’s Trade Campaign</a>. It is
difficult to overstate the potential implications on the lives of
people around the world if anything like the agreement in these
leaked documents were to be implemented with the force of law.</p>
<p class="indent">The TPP is called a ‘trade agreement,’ but in
actuality it is a long-dreamed-of template for implementing a
binding system of global corporate governance as bold as anything
the world’s wealthiest elite has attempted before. 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. The TPP essentially proposes to establish a parallel
system of justice where companies can sue countries in a tribunal
of judges composed of unaccountable international trade lawyers
with little to no process for appeal.</p>
<p class="indent">This wild bastardization of the concept of justice
endangers everything from affordable medicines, internet freedoms
and intellectual property rights to democratically enacted labor
laws and environmental protections. And that’s not to mention the
massive outsourcing of middle class jobs from the US to countries
like Vietnam and Brunei.</p>
<p class="indent">This isn’t just a bad trade agreement, it’s a wish
list of the 1%—a worldwide corporate power grab of enormous
proportions.</p>
<p class="indent">This week, in an empty warehouse on the outskirts
of downtown Baltimore, a group of activists from around the US
gathered to plan a spirited week of resistance to the TPP.
Finally, after three years of secret negotiations, the momentum of
an opposition movement is building. On Sunday, <a
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-09/protesters-seek-openness-at-pacific-region-trade-pact-talks-1-.html"
target="_blank">a diverse and raucous crowd of a couple hundred
people descended on this exclusive golf resort to demand their
voices be heard</a>, chanting after each speaker: “Flush the
TPP!”</p>
<p class="indent">NAFTA was the last straw that sent the Zapatistas
into armed rebellion. The WTO negotiations spawned a robust and
global anti-globalization movement the likes of which the world
had never seen. Even after 9/11, the FTAA elicited a pushback of
people power that even a fully militarized Miami police force
could not completely suppress.</p>
<p class="indent">But near as I can tell, even though the TPP is
bigger, bolder and badder than any trade agreement before it, the
small group gathered this week on a grassy hillside in rural
Virginia is the backbone of resistance to the TPP today.</p>
<p class="indent">The elements are there: a diverse coalition of
wonky NGOs, social justice and trade policy experts, urban
anarchists, Occupiers and suburban activists painting banners and
scheming pranks—labor leaders, environmental groups and
representatives from Mexico, Peru and beyond, but the scale is so
far totally out of proportion to the threat we’re facing.</p>
<p class="indent">But this is beginning to change. Speakers at
Sunday’s rally included key labor leaders from the Teamsters, and
the Communications Workers of America joined with the leaders of
environmental groups from the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth
and Rainforest Action Network.</p>
<p class="indent">The TPP was conceived under the second Bush
administration, but it has been embraced and nurtured into
maturity under Obama’s watch. The widespread belief among people
here opposing it is that the current Administration is in a race
to finish much of the negotiations while they can bank on the fact
that labor leaders and environmental and human rights advocates
will shy away from challenging a democratic president in an
election year. Free trade agreements are particularly unpopular in
the key swing states Obama needs to win this election—making right
now a crucial moment of opportunity to pull the TPP out of the
shadows and leverage our combined political power to kill it
before it takes root any deeper.</p>
<p class="indent">Stay tuned, one way or another history will be
made in the coming months and the outcome will forever influence
how our communities and countries relate to each other in an
ever-shrinking world.</p>
<p class="indent">Flush the TPP!<br>
</p>
<p class="indent"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/13444-tpp-a-worldwide-corporate-power-grab-of-enormous-proportions">http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/13444-tpp-a-worldwide-corporate-power-grab-of-enormous-proportions</a><br>
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