I suspect many are not aware of what the TPP is, but it is something that can have a profound effect on many in this country. It is the Trans Pacific Partnership, which is a trade deal now being negotiated by the Obama Administration with eleven other Pacific Rim countries. It has been called by some “NAFTA on steroids.” Ross Perot talked about the “great sucking sound” of jobs leaving our country with NAFTA. Will it increase to a roar with the TPP?
The TPP is a negotiation in which corporations have the dominate input. It is being negotiated in secret and the only concern of the corporate input is for corporate profits, not the best interest of the American people. A major reason most Americans are unaware of this deal is that our media is controlled by corporate giants who don’t really want us to know. We should consider whether past trade deals like NAFTA and the WTO (World Trade Organization) have improved the lot of the average citizen and will this pact do the same as in the past? Has the lot of the American people improved with past deals? The answer to that is a simple NO! For the corporations and the wealthy they have been just grand.
Past agreements have been supported by both major political parties. Both are parties of business and love corporate donation dollars. In the past trade deals both parties have supported the corporations and not the people. You would think there would be a great deal of conservative opposition to this and past trade deals because under these negotiations we have given foreign corporations the ability to make us liable for our own laws.
We often hear from conservatives the cries of world government when it comes to the United Nations, but past trade deals not only make our laws open to actions by foreign governments, they are also vulnerable to corporations. Under past agreements, our laws can be challenged if a corporation believes its future profits are threatened by one of our laws. As one who is concerned about the environment, a law which protects our health and environment can be challenged by foreign corporations. If you think we should have the right to know where our food comes from, our labelling laws on this are now being challenged under the WTO. Secret trade courts make rulings on these challenges.
It seems apparent to me that any true conservative would oppose such a deal. The problem is that many of our politicians who claim to be conservatives are really corporatists. After several attempts to get a response as to where Representative Marino stands on the TPP, I got a call from his Washington office. I still didn’t get a definitive answer from his spokesperson, but was told that Representative Marino in general favors such agreements. If you don’t think that American workers should have to compete with low wage workers from countries like Vietnam, please let him know. Let him know that no corporation or government should have the ability to challenge our laws. Progressives and conservatives should be united against the TPP.