politics

White House insists it is still pushing TPP pact

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What does TPP mean?

Genetically modified junk food.

Food products unlabeled so nobody has a clue what's in them.

Corporations suing governments to pass or relax laws so that they can hawk their products.

And the negotiations being conducted in strict secrecy?

You really must be joking!

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Yes, but the problem is they are not joking!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Ahh, I remember when people thought that TPP was a good idea... Maybe they still do... But more and more details about TPP are coming out, and people are not so sure anymore.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

TPP means that a company can sue a government against environmental laws of clean air, water, and land among other utter stupidities. This is for corporations only and all the governments involved are traitors to their own laws and their own people

3 ( +4 / -1 )

TPP should be renamed ATP (American Trade Prerogative ) now that USG has usurped the original concept for their own hegemony.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Key word: "Pushing" like into forcing.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Half-Term Gov. of Alaska response:

"Obviously more irrefutiated proof that Obama and the demorats are socialists."

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

" Half-Term Gov. of Alaska response: "Obviously more irrefutiated proof that Obama and the demorats are socialists.""

What's truly pitiful is that as illiterate or ignorant said half-term former governer is, the irrelevant and poorly worded statement is true! Proof that even a broken clock is correct twice a day.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

avigator,

Key word: "Pushing" like into forcing.

No, "pushing" is right. As in "pushing heroin, cocaine," etc.

By the way, doesn't the guy in the picture above look happy?

NOT!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

What does TPP mean?

"Genetically modified junk food.

Food products unlabeled so nobody has a clue what's in them.

Corporations suing governments to pass or relax laws so that they can hawk their products.

And the negotiations being conducted in strict secrecy?

You really must be joking!"

Why not? Everything in your list are things Japan does, or has done in the past (BTW, all food items sold in America DO list all of the ingredients contained in them).

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Why not? Everything in your list are things Japan does, or has done in the past (BTW, all food items sold in America DO list all of the ingredients contained in them).

@sangetsu03: just because Japan lacks control of it's food laws, that makes it an example of how things should become for everyone?

TPP means that food labeling will be reduced to the lowest common denominator. TPP is not the US imposing it's rules to the others, but large corporations trying to shake off any legal limits. TPP could have some benefits, but only when the negotiations are supervised by the public. Congress must not give up democratic control if they do not want to create a disaster for every country involved, including the US.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I love how many people watch a YouTube video or read a website that supports their opinion and suddenly they are experts.

In fact the latest news even says the countries involved in the TPP negotiations are unlikely to ease their individual food safety standards, the subject is not being discussed in the negotiations. So all this GMO crap and TTP is complete BS.

For the article I think it is huge that Obama and the US Gov't starting trying to speed up the TPP now with most of Asia in it (Korea and Taiwan late 2013) and China and India at the door trying to get it, the TPP has become one of the main points for the US Pivot to Asia.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

TPP allows for foreign corporations the right to sue a government over laws and policies that corporations allege reduce their profits or reduce the "expectation of a stable business and legal environment" under ISDS (Investor-state dispute settlement).

Isn't this unbelievable? This means that a corporation, a foreign one at that, can effectively change the laws of your own country! So if anti-nuclear laws damage a nuclear corporation, then it can sue the government over it!

In fact, Exxon Mobil, Dow Chemical, Chevron, and others have filed more than 500 cases against more than 90 governments. And that pattern is likely to continue. Governments -- including the U.S. government -- are actively engaged in expanding the very rules that led to this harmful case. Investment rules very similar to the ones in NAFTA are set to be included in the 12-nation TPP trade pact, and may also be included in the U.S.-EU trade pact.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ilana-solomon/lone-pine-sues-canada-over-fracking_b_4032696.html

Don't be fooled. TPP is nothing but a Mega-corporation super-friendly pact.

American economy is CRUMBLING due to neoliberalism and corporatism. America has spread this disease to NA and Europe. And now America wants to spread this disease to Asia via TPP. Do not be fooled. If Japan joins TPP, then it can never get out. Japan will go down with the US of A.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

" Don't be fooled. TPP is nothing but a Mega-corporation super-friendly pact. American economy is CRUMBLING due to neoliberalism and corporatism. America has spread this disease to NA and Europe. And now America wants to spread this disease to Asia via TPP. Do not be fooled. If Japan joins TPP, then it can never get out. Japan will go down with the US of A."

Agree!

2 ( +4 / -2 )

I wonder if the executives of companies like Monsanto that produce Genetically Modified "Food" eat their own products?

Somehow I doubt it.

TPP reeks of double standards.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

But the top Democrats in the Senate and the House of Representatives have signaled that they oppose granting trade promotion authority (TPA)—which would effectively allow President Barack Obama to negotiate trade deals which cannot be later modified by Congress.

This is a huge problem. The congress in the past, repeatedly, taken a deal that's been signed and removed all the bits that give it any shred of balance and then insisted that the now completely unbalanced deal be honored by the other country. It is utterly ridiculous and no country in their right mind would sign an agreement that has a little clause at the bottom saying, "Subject to unilateral modification by the U.S. Congress", it is a door that is wide open to abuse and that has been abused with such consistency that no-one wants to sign any agreements with the U.S.

Company to company business? Sure. Business with the U.S. government? We'll pass thanks. They never pay anyway and the U.S. courts are notorious for blatantly political rulings that favor U.S. interests (courtesy of the U.S. legal and political systems being so overlapped that any pretense at separation of powers went out the window decades ago).

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Bottom line: It may be good for the ALREADY wealthy and money-heavy corporations, BUT, it is NOT good for American Workers. The ability to buy inexpensive and more often than not, substandard goods, does NOT put more salary in the pockets of the American Workers.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

umiosoFeb. 18, 2014 - 08:09AM JST Bottom line: It may be good for the ALREADY wealthy and money-heavy corporations, BUT, it is NOT good for American Workers. The ability to buy inexpensive and more often than not, substandard goods, does NOT put more salary in the pockets of the American Workers.

I see this sort of argument a lot. It just isn't realistic. Trade tariffs are a form of additional taxation. For example in Japan rice imported from other countries is taxed over 700%, and that money goes directly into government pockets. If this tax was lowered then the working poor could eat more for less, especially fruit and vegetables. This wouldn't increase the salaries of American workers, but it would decrease their cost of living and increase their disposable income.

Now let's move onto this "American worker". More than 70% of Americans have college degrees, and 79% of Americans work in the service sector (bankers, accountants, retail, etc.). Only 10% of American workers work in manufacturing, and many of them are higher-level positions like engineers who design products that are later produced in other countries by low-skill labor.

The contention that lowering tariffs would in any way threaten the jobs of U.S. workers is ridiculous. Those cheap products you import from China? Most of them are designed by U.S. engineers and are ordered by U.S. manufacturers.

This isn't the 1970's any more. The global economy is now specialised by high-skill countries and low-skill countries, with the high-skill countries producing the designs and innovation for low-skill countries to produce. The high-skill countries take their pound of flesh until the low-skill country figures out how to reverse-engineer the product (which can take years), and by that time the high-skill country has innovated further, leaving demand for the old product virtually zero (except in the poorer low-skill country). Ask yourself this simple question, would anyone in the U.S. actually BUY an iphone 4? No, everyone wants the iphone 5. Innovation drives the global economy, and thus tariff reductions are no threat.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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