The Trans-Pacific Partnership
This worries me...
If it worries you too, you can sign this petition. I don't ordinarily hawk petitions, but we've got to try to stave this off too!
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Comments
See: RCA vs. Philo T. Farnsworth.
It's most likely real -- pieces of the agreement got leaked and published by the EFF before the whole thing did, and they jive with this one.
Here's an email I got back from my own congressman.
EDIT: hang on. Stupid formatting on Heapers is injecting spaces EVERYWHERE.
Thanks for your message in opposition to granting President Obama "fast track" trade negotiating authority. We are in complete agreement.
You will be pleased to know that I signed the Rep. DeLauro letter opposing fast track authority. In fact, throughout my time in Congress I have always voted against fast track trade authority and opposed every single free trade agreement. I led the opposition to fast track in 1998. Republicans were happy to deny fast track authority to President Clinton and we were successful in defeating it. Unfortunately, the Republican majority was more than happy to give President Bush fast track authority in 2001.
My opposition to fast track is to protect the constitutional prerogatives of Congress under Article I Section 8, which states that Congress has the sole authority to regulate trade with foreign nations. Additionally, I believe that U.S. workers and the U.S. economy have not been well-served by U.S. trade policies, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), or granting most-favored nation status to China.
While supporters of these agreements promised they would benefit workers, farmers, businesses, and the U.S. economy, the reality has been very different. These "free" trade agreements have decimated the U.S. manufacturing capacity. The U.S. has lost over 5 million family wage manufacturing jobs including 52,000 here in Oregon, and closed over 54,000 factories in the past ten years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. trade policy has made it easier for multinational corporations to chase the cheapest wages and lax environmental, labor, and safety standards around the world at the expense of U.S. workers.
If Congress grants President Obama fast track authority, they will lose yet another opportunity to pursue reforms in our trade policy.
This could not come at a more critical time since final negotiations on the TPP which is the largest FTA to ever be negotiated, are set to conclude by the end of this year.
I have been one of the few vocal critics of the current TPP Free Trade Agreement which has been shrouded in secrecy. President Obama and his staff have had little to no consultation with Members of Congress on the contents of the agreement and their impacts on American workers, businesses, and consumers. I can only view the draft text of the agreement in a secure room, and I'm barred from taking notes or speaking publically about what I read. That is absurd. I don't trust this President or any other President when it comes to negotiating free trade agreements. Fast track will further cede authority to the executive branch and continue to leave Congress in the dark regarding U.S. trade policy.
We need a new trade policy that creates jobs in the U.S., decreases our trade deficit, and levels the playing field with foreign countries by enforcing international trade law. Over the next few months I will be working with like minded colleagues to develop an alternative to fast track that incorporates these values.
Thanks again for your message. Please keep in touch.
Sincerely,
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE PETER DeFAZIO
Fourth Congressional District, Oregon
Here's where I first heard about it.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/another-reason-hate-tpp-it-gives-big-content-new-tools-undermine-sane-digital
Silly Response: But us Internet people won last time (SOPA/PIPA). It's the Copyright Guys's turn to win now. That's what taking turns is all about. After a given number of years, we can have the current internet back, when it's our turn again. We lived without internet before and we can do it again!
this is just yet another cynical move to allow corporations to do whatever the fuck they want without regard for the interests or well-being of regular citizens
well, the Guardian reported on it and they're (mostly) respectable, so evidently they think there's some truth to it
given SOPA and the continual surveillance of late, this really doesn't sound absurd to me
In any case I was just explaining why I was initially skeptical.
supposedly, the article is behind a paywall.
sauce: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13103447000A18674100&page=3105#77618 this post by Demon Shark Kisame on the TVT US Politics thread.
Frankly speaking, these interests aren't even country-specific.