A 'fast track' through Congress for the Trans Pacific Partnership proposals ?
Meh.
More pollution? More outsourcing? Less Democracy? Fewer worker protections? Less quality control over food and drugs? Many questions have legitimately been raised about the secretive Trans Pacific Trade pact, and rightly so.
Leaked TPP documents: Administration may give up key environmental protections
Salon - 1 day ago
The Obama administration appears to be sacrificing the environment in its push to fast-track a deal.
In its urgency to reach agreement on an ambitious international trade agreement, the Obama administration may give up on key environmental protections, documents obtained by WikiLeaks reveal. Obama has indicated that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping deal being negotiated between the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim nations, is a top priority, and the push to fast-track the negotiations, the leaked documents indicate, appears to be coming at the cost of protections such as legally binding pollution control requirements, logging regulations and a ban on harvesting shark fins.
While the U.S. has been pushing for tough environmental provisions, the other nations working on the deal, which include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Peru, oppose them. And they currently have the upper hand, the New York Times reports:
Many of us have come to the conclusion that we must oppose fast tracking the TPP through Congress.
At some point you may be in a position to need to argue against a fast track through Congress w with your Facebook pals or some 1%er wannabee.....
AFL-CIO has a fun list of reasons to say no to Fastrack, complete with funny gifs.
http://www.aflcio.org/...
AFL-CIO Now
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Home > AFL-CIO Now > Political Action/Legislation > 7 Reasons We Don’t Want ‘Fa...
7 Reasons We Don’t Want ‘Fast Track’ Trade Deals
01/15/2014
Celeste Drake
1. ‘Fast Track’ Is Old School
2. ‘Fast Track’ Is a Job Killer
3. ‘Fast Track’ Will Lower Wages
4. ‘Fast Track’ Will Make Things More Unequal
5. ‘Fast Track’ Is Anti-Democratic
6. ‘Fast Track’ Gives Corporations More Power
7. ‘Fast Track’ Will Make You Sick
The post goes into detail on each of the seven, and has some funny gifs with each one.
Organized Labor not alone in opposing Fast Track
Fair trade activists oppose new U.S. 'fast track' legislation
By
Stuart Trew
| January 13, 2014
rabble.ca
Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch program, says, "Congress' willingness to support Fast Track has declined markedly because 'trade' agreements have increasingly invaded Congress' domestic policymaking prerogatives." She points to a letter signed by 151 Democrats in November that calls for a new trade negotiating process that better reflects Congress' "constitutional authority to set the terms of trade."
"Democratic and GOP presidents alike have consistently ignored the negotiating objectives included in Fast Track, but the way the process is structured, Congress has given away its authority to do anything about it," says Wallach.
Many U.S. groups, including Food and Water Watch, Public Citizen, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Citizens Trade Campaign, the Flush the TPP network and others, have been pressuring Members of Congress to reject any new trade promotion authority. Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, explained why his union is opposing the Baucus bill:
... 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of NAFTA, which was only the first in a series of trade agreements that have undermined millions of middle-class American jobs and weakened our democratic structures. So it is ironic that this year the supporters of that failed model are bringing forward a fast track trade promotion bill to bring us more of the same: more trade deals that strengthen corporate power and CEO profits, while putting downward pressure on wages and opportunities for the rest of us; more outsourced and offshored jobs and more attacks on domestic health and safety regulations.
America's workforce deserves better than warmed over trade deals, which will do nothing to raise wages or reduce our $540 billion trade deficit. The United States is long overdue for an overhaul of its trade priorities and trade practices. Rather than focusing on empowering multinational corporations, we should be working to support domestic manufacturing jobs, fix our crumbling infrastructure, and rebuild a strong middle class. This fast track bill will do the opposite.
Fast track the TPP ???? No me gusta.
2:23 PM PT: Both Betty Pinson http://www.dailykos.com/... and poopdogcomedy http://www.dailykos.com/... have diaries on this issue up now for your reading pleasure, and HT to Betty for sending me to poopdog for the link to DFA petition. Action!