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TPP Threat to: Freedom, Food, Water
(Photo: Alex Garland/flickr/cc)
The Trans-Pacific Trade Scam
Despite what President Obama says, the TPP does indeed create a corporate end run around our laws.
Dec 25, 2015
Last spring, President Barack Obama got downright crabby about people criticizing the mammoth Trans-Pacific Partnership he's trying to sell to Congress and the public.
More and more Americans are learning that the TPP would undermine America's very sovereignty, giving multinational corporations direct access to secretive tribunals that could roll back any consumer, labor, or environmental laws that global corporate giants don't like.
Yet an irked Obama denies that this is true: "They're making this stuff up," he cried. "No trade agreement is going to force us to change our laws."
Perhaps he was misinformed. Perhaps he hasn't actually read the deal he's pushing. Or -- dare we say it? -- perhaps he's lying.
In unmistakable language, the TPP does indeed create the private, corporate-run mechanism for changing our laws. Moreover, surely Obama knows that foreign corporations are already doing this indirectly.
Through little-known provisions in past trade scams, powerful corporations in other countries have pressured their governments to challenge our laws in similar tribunals.
From Canada to Malaysia, many countries have -- on behalf of their corporate powers -- successfully forced Congress and U.S. agencies to weaken or eliminate everything from environmental protections to consumer right-to-know laws.
In fact, this very year, Obama's own administration has been told by the World Trade Organization that it must alter or repeal America's laws on labeling foreign agricultural products.
This TPP flimflam would elevate profiteering corporations to the legal status of sovereign nations, empowering them to sue directly in rigged corporate courts "to force us to change our laws." Obama knows this--and if he doesn't, he should.
Either way, it destroys his presidential credibility and moral authority to keep pushing this giveaway of our people's sovereignty.
An Unconstitutional Rampage
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
This column was distributed by OtherWords.
Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the books "Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow" (2008) and "There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos: A Work of Political Subversion" (1998). Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
barack obamacongressconsumer rightsjim hightowermalaysiamultinational corporationstpptradetrans-pacific partnershipworld trade organization
Last spring, President Barack Obama got downright crabby about people criticizing the mammoth Trans-Pacific Partnership he's trying to sell to Congress and the public.
More and more Americans are learning that the TPP would undermine America's very sovereignty, giving multinational corporations direct access to secretive tribunals that could roll back any consumer, labor, or environmental laws that global corporate giants don't like.
Yet an irked Obama denies that this is true: "They're making this stuff up," he cried. "No trade agreement is going to force us to change our laws."
Perhaps he was misinformed. Perhaps he hasn't actually read the deal he's pushing. Or -- dare we say it? -- perhaps he's lying.
In unmistakable language, the TPP does indeed create the private, corporate-run mechanism for changing our laws. Moreover, surely Obama knows that foreign corporations are already doing this indirectly.
Through little-known provisions in past trade scams, powerful corporations in other countries have pressured their governments to challenge our laws in similar tribunals.
From Canada to Malaysia, many countries have -- on behalf of their corporate powers -- successfully forced Congress and U.S. agencies to weaken or eliminate everything from environmental protections to consumer right-to-know laws.
In fact, this very year, Obama's own administration has been told by the World Trade Organization that it must alter or repeal America's laws on labeling foreign agricultural products.
This TPP flimflam would elevate profiteering corporations to the legal status of sovereign nations, empowering them to sue directly in rigged corporate courts "to force us to change our laws." Obama knows this--and if he doesn't, he should.
Either way, it destroys his presidential credibility and moral authority to keep pushing this giveaway of our people's sovereignty.
Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the books "Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow" (2008) and "There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos: A Work of Political Subversion" (1998). Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
Last spring, President Barack Obama got downright crabby about people criticizing the mammoth Trans-Pacific Partnership he's trying to sell to Congress and the public.
More and more Americans are learning that the TPP would undermine America's very sovereignty, giving multinational corporations direct access to secretive tribunals that could roll back any consumer, labor, or environmental laws that global corporate giants don't like.
Yet an irked Obama denies that this is true: "They're making this stuff up," he cried. "No trade agreement is going to force us to change our laws."
Perhaps he was misinformed. Perhaps he hasn't actually read the deal he's pushing. Or -- dare we say it? -- perhaps he's lying.
In unmistakable language, the TPP does indeed create the private, corporate-run mechanism for changing our laws. Moreover, surely Obama knows that foreign corporations are already doing this indirectly.
Through little-known provisions in past trade scams, powerful corporations in other countries have pressured their governments to challenge our laws in similar tribunals.
From Canada to Malaysia, many countries have -- on behalf of their corporate powers -- successfully forced Congress and U.S. agencies to weaken or eliminate everything from environmental protections to consumer right-to-know laws.
In fact, this very year, Obama's own administration has been told by the World Trade Organization that it must alter or repeal America's laws on labeling foreign agricultural products.
This TPP flimflam would elevate profiteering corporations to the legal status of sovereign nations, empowering them to sue directly in rigged corporate courts "to force us to change our laws." Obama knows this--and if he doesn't, he should.
Either way, it destroys his presidential credibility and moral authority to keep pushing this giveaway of our people's sovereignty.
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