By Hardnox | February 10, 2014 - 9:00 am
From the NJ Times: By Nicole Glonek
The more information about the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement that comes out, the more alarmed I am by it. Anyone who would think to support the TPP has no regard for Americans. Few members of Congress have seen the complete draft text of the TPP, yet hundreds of corporate advisors, from Wall Street to Walmart, reportedly have been given access — the same firms that have effectively wrecked our economy. These firms are the only ones who will benefit from TPP at the expense of American workers.
The claim is that TPP will create jobs, and it will, but not for Americans. The U.S. will lose an estimated 130,000 jobs solely due to the inclusion of Japan and Vietnam in the partnership. In fact, TPP will support and reward countries like Vietnam, which violate human rights by staffing factories with child slave labor or workers who make a minimum wage of 28 cents an hour.
TPP will put the health of Americans at risk, as it will cause the prices for medication in the U.S. to go up by extending the monopolies of the big pharmaceutical companies. Also, more food products exported from Vietnam, Korea and Malaysia tainted with salmonella, E. coli and drug residues will be able to slip into the U.S., as it will greatly expand the quantity of food exported to the U.S., taxing the already thinly stretched services of the Food and Drug Administration.
Once the TPP is signed, it would have no expiration date — locking in its troubling, extreme policies and allowing other Pacific Rim nations, including China and Russia, to sign on at a later date, if accepted by the other signatories.
For our president to ask Congress to use “Fast Track” for TPP is outrageous. Fast-tracking means Congress members may only vote it up or down. They would not even be allowed to change one punctuation mark in it.
I urge every American to write and call his or her representatives daily, tell them to vote NO to Fast Track and vote no to the Trans-Pacific Partnership to save what we still have.
—oo—
So much for that promised transparency.
Pissed yet?
~ Hardnox
