The Trans-Pacific Partnership

[redandguilty]

Go get your tinfoil hats. Unbelievable.

Congressman Alan Grayson is a Democrat that sponsored Ron Paul's audit the fed bill. So I'd have to read more about the guy to get a grip on his perspective. But he read this TPP bill recently and wrote the following:

Last month, 10,000 of us submitted comments to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), in which we objected to new so-called free trade agreements. We asked that the government not sell out our democracy to corporate interests.

Because of this pressure, the USTR finally let a member of Congress ? little ole me, Alan Grayson [anyone who's seen Grayson in action knows that he is formidable] ? actually see the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP is a large, secret trade agreement that is being negotiated with many countries in East Asia and South America.

The TPP is nicknamed ?NAFTA on steroids.? Now that I?ve read it, I can see why. I can?t tell you what?s in the agreement, because the U.S. Trade Representative calls it classified. But I can tell you two things about it.

1) There is no national security purpose in keeping this text secret.

2) This agreement hands the sovereignty of our country over to corporate interests.

3) What they can?t afford to tell the American public is that [the rest of this sentence is classified].

***

I will be fighting this agreement with everything I?ve got. And I know you?ll be there every step of the way.

***

Courage,

Congressman Alan Grayson

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013...ds-the-sovereignty-of-our-country-over-t.html

 

[redandguilty]

Elizabeth Warren was the first person I read talking about this, but it sort of got buried in the NSA thing. Y'all probably heard this:

“I have heard the argument that transparency would undermine the Trade Representative’s policy to complete the trade agreement because public opposition would be significant,” Warren explained. “In other words, if people knew what was going on, they would stop it. This argument is exactly backwards. If transparency would lead to widespread public opposition to a trade agreement, then that trade agreement should not be the policy of the United States.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/...le-knew-what-was-going-on-they-would-stop-it/

 

[redandguilty]

Several links at the end of this story.

The new texts reveal that TPP negotiators are considering a dispute resolution process that would grant transnational corporations special authority to challenge countries’ laws, regulations and court decisions in international tribunals that circumvent domestic judicial systems.

... ...

The TPP is poised to become the largest free trade agreement in the world, potentially impacting jobs, wages, agriculture, migration, the environment, consumer safety, financial regulations, Internet protocols, government procurement and more.

http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/bl...ter-contains-special-rights-for-corporations/

 

[byco42]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxiT30N6ti4