As Zach Carter noted over at HuffPo last night, the U.S. has lost virtually all support for its positions with regard to the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement negotiations, the latest round of which was concluded today in Singapore: "The Obama administration appears to have almost no international support for controversial new trade standards that would grant radical new political powers to corporations, increase the cost of prescription medications and restrict bank regulation, according to two internal memos obtained by The Huffington Post."
(NOTE: Diarist has received written authorization from Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, co-directors of PopularResistance.org, to republish their work in its entirety for the benefit of the Daily Kos community.)
TPP Conflicts Exposed: Many Areas Of Dispute, Negotiations In Crisis
By Staff and www.wikileaks.org
Popular Resistance
December 8th, 2013
Above: DC Media Group/Anne Meador photo of US Trade Representative building in Washington, DC draped with banners urging transparency and opposing the TPP.
Today, 9 December 2013, WikiLeaks has released two more secret TPP documents that show the state of negotiations as the twelve TPP countries began supposedly final negotiations at a trade ministers’ meeting in Singapore this week.
One document describes deep divisions between the United States and other nations, and “great pressure” being exerted by the US negotiators to move other nations to their position. The other document lists, country-by-country, the many areas of disagreement remaining. It covers intellectual property and thirteen other chapters of the draft agreement. This suggests that the TPP negotiations can only be concluded if the Asia-Pacific countries back down on key national interest issues, otherwise the treaty will fail altogether.
Here are some excerpts from the Salt Lake City documents:
(Continued below.)
Links to the full leaks:
TPP Salt Lake Extracts, http://wikileaks.org/...
TPP Salt Lake Positions, http://wikileaks.org/...
On 13 November 2013 WikiLeaks released the draft text of the crucial Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) Intellectual Property chapter during the lead-up to a TPP chief negotiators’ meeting in Salt Lake City on 19-24 November 2013. See the first TPP release from WikiLeaks: https://wikileaks.org/....
Read more here:
Zach Carter, Obama Faces Backlash Over New Corporate Powers In Secret Trade Deal, Huffington Post.
Excerpt: The Obama administration appears to have almost no international support for controversial new trade standards that would grant radical new political powers to corporations, increase the cost of prescription medications and restrict bank regulation, according to two internal memos obtained by The Huffington Post.
The memos, which come from a government involved in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations, detail continued disputes in the talks over the deal.
The documents reveal broad disagreement over a host of key positions, and general skepticism that an agreement can be reached by year-end.
The Obama administration has urged countries to reach a deal by New Year’s Day, though there is no technical deadline.
One memo, which was heavily redacted before being provided to HuffPost, was written ahead of a new round of talks in Singapore this week. Read the full text of what HuffPost received here. (Note: Ellipses indicate redacted text. Text in brackets has been added by a third party.)
Another document, a chart outlining different country positions on the text, dates from early November, before the round of negotiations in Salt Lake City, Utah. View the chart here. HuffPost was unable to determine which of the 11 non-U.S. nations involved in the talks was responsible for the memo.
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Keep the pressure on Capitol Hill!
One More Week To Tell Congress to Say No to Fast-Track of the TPP
By Staff, www.popularresistance.org
December 6th, 2013
TPP negotiators are meeting in Singapore from December 7 to 9 to attempt to complete the text of the TPP agreement. As the year ends, pressure is growing to both finish the TPP and to pass Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority in Congress. If the President is given Fast Track, then he can sign the TPP and Congress will have a limited time to read the agreement before they are required to vote up or down on it. Fast Track has been used historically to pass trade agreements that would not survive under Congressional scrutiny.
Congress only has one more week in session this year, the week of December 9. So far our pressure to stop the TPP has been working. Close to 200 members of Congress have expressed opposition to Fast Track. We must keep the pressure on (because you know that the corporate lobbyists are) to send Congress home with a clear message that they must not give up their responsibility under the Constitution to oversee commerce and they must go through the process of understanding the full implications of the TPP before they vote on it. That means that they must oppose Fast Track.
Our focus for the final week is on the House of Representatives, especially the members of the Ways and Means Committee which is responsible for creating the Fast Track legislation.
Please take time this week to contact your member of Congress. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.
1. Find your member’s website: You can search for your member at House.gov even if you don’t know who your member is.
2. Find your member’s phone number and email: You will find his or her contact information on their website. You can choose to call the DC office or use the email contact form on the website.
3. Make the call or send the email. Keep it short and focused. Here is a sample script:
“Hello, my name is ______ and I live in _______. I am calling (writing) to ask you to oppose giving the President Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”
You can stop there or you can give a reason why you oppose the TPP. Perhaps you are concerned about food safety, the price of medications, the environment, internet freedom, worker rights or the loss of sovereignty.
If your member is on the Ways and Means Committee, please ask them to prevent Fast Track legislation from leaving the committee.
Here is a list of the committee members:
Dave Camp, MI, Chairman
Sam Johnson, TX
Kevin Brady, TX
Paul Ryan, WI
Devin Nunes, CA
Pat Tiberi, OH
Dave G. Reichert, WA
Charles W. Boustany Jr., LA
Peter J. Roskam, IL
Jim Gerlach, PA
Tom Price, GA
Vern Buchanan, FL
Adrian Smith, NE
Aaron Schock, IL
Lynn Jenkins, KS
Erik Paulsen, MN
Kenny Marchant, TX
Diane Black, TN
Tom Reed, NY
Todd Young, IN
Mike Kelly, PA
Tim Griffin, AR
Jim Renacci, OH
Sander Levin, MI, Ranking Member
Charles B. Rangel, NY
Jim McDermott, WA
John Lewis, GA
Richard E. Neal, MA
Xavier Becerra, CA
Lloyd Doggett, TX
Mike Thompson, CA
John B. Larson, CT
Earl Blumenauer, OR
Ron Kind, WI
Bill Pascrell Jr., NJ
Joseph Crowley, NY
Allyson Schwartz, PA
Danny Davis, IL
Linda Sánchez, CA
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