Negotiations for three free-trade agreements are heading into their final phase. To clear the way, the Senate took action this week.
Bill # S. 1900
Bill Title: Trade Priorities Act
Sponsors: Max Baucus (D-MT), Orin Hatch (R-UT)
Status: Referred to Senate Finance Committee. Please call (202-224-4515), or fax (202-228-0554).
Folks, there are three free-trade agreements currently in their final stages of negotiations by US Trade Representative Michael Froman and US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker.
To grease the works and expedite these gifts for plutocrats and oligarchs, the Senate is moving to fast-track the trade agreements. They want to make sure they get through Congress with a minimum of fuss from you, the American People, who stand to lose your jobs and wages. It’s a screw-over six ways to Saturday and seven ways to Sunday.
Don’t get lost in the alphabet soup of it:
TPA is the Trade Priorities Act, the bill introduced on Thursday that allows the free-trade agreements to go through Congress without the scrutiny they’d get if they followed the Constitutional process for treaties. Instead, the agreements will get an up or down vote with no amendments.
TPP is the Trans-Pacific Partnership which opens trade barriers among a dozen Pacific Rim nations. Say buh-bye to whatever remains of the garment & apparel industry in the US. Those jobs will go to Vietnam where most of the cheap clothes and shoes will be made for sale at Walmart and Target. Bangladesh must be considered too risky. Sugar growers in Hawaii will face competition from cheaper imports and driven out of business. Services offshoring will be enabled with opportunities away from India to lower wage locations.
TTIP is the Trans-Atlantic Trade And Investment Partnership with the 28 countries of the European Union. It promises to open European markets to a vast array of agricultural products. In other words, Bonjour Monsanto. The Europeans are none too pleased. In Italy, they have their pitchforks out to defend the farmers who grow hard durum wheat for pasta, a huge industry. In France, rioters are wearing red, as they rampage against the threat faced by their unique artisanal approach to agriculture which will be swept away by mechanized industrial farming that pollutes the environment and produces crap. This is part of a long-term plan to break Europeans of their cushy Socialist ways and bring them down a peg or two, for the sake of the corporatocracy. Also wrapped up in TTIP is the fate of the NSA in Europe. Our brothers and sisters across the Atlantic aren’t docile or uneducated. They see what’s coming. The NSA can be used for coercion against any who resist.
TISA is the Trade in Services Agreement that defines the offshoring of American jobs to locations around the globe.
How do they get away with this crap?
You have a media blackout on the topic in the US. Many, if not most, still haven’t clued in and they still think that what they see on TV is all there is. It isn’t. In fact, it’s incredibly difficult to learn even the most elementary facts and information that a citizen needs to know. But it can be done.
The trade negotiations could be held in Bali or under your nose in Washington, DC. Either way, they’re invisible unless you turn off your TV to go looking for the truth. It can be found.
The next step is a Senate Finance Committee hearing on January 16. The committee is chaired by Max Baucus and his sidekick, Hatch, is the ranking Republican. Since they introduced and co-sponsor the bill it will head to the floor for a vote with little fuss. Still, you can flood the committee with calls and faxes using the numbers above. Or call your own Senators to voice your opposition.
If you do, they will have talking points to sell these rotten deals like a used-car salesman selling a lemon.
Don’t believe what they say. If you’re curious, you can click through the Finance Committee website to find the shameless talking points. It would take me too long to translate them here.
Courage!
And please rec list as you see fit. This is important.