One Advantage Of Obama's Plummeting Approval: Maybe His Deceitful And Disastrous Trade Agenda Can Be Derailed

Last week we took another look at Obama's latest benign-sounding "free" trade disaster-in-the-making, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't vote for anyone who backs these kinds of agreements, regardless of political party. At the time we mentioned how everything was being hidden from the public and totally shrouded in secrecy-- secrecy from the taxpayers and ordinary citizens, not from the predatory corporations who finance the political careers of America's ruling elites. Now wikileaks has heroically has begun releasing the documents.

The TPP has been shrouded in secrecy from the beginning because the Obama administration knows that the more people know about it, the more they will oppose the agreement. The release of the full Intellectual Property chapter today by Wiikileaks confims what had been suspected, the Obama administration has been an advocate for transnational corporate interests in the negotiations even though they run counter to the needs and desires of the public.

  This is not surprising since we already knew that 600 corporate advisers were working with the US Trade Representative to draft the TPP. This means that for nearly four years some of the top corporate lawyers have been inserting phrases, paragraphs and whole sections so the agreement suits the needs of corporate power, while undermining the interests of people and planet.

  Now from these documents we see that the US is isolated in its aggressive advocacy for transnational interests and that there are scores of areas still unresolved between the US and Pacific nations. The conclusion: the TPP cannot be saved.  It has been destroyed by secret corporate advocacy. It needs to be rejected. Trade needs to be negotiated with a new approach-- transparency, participation of civil society throughout the process, full congressional review and participation, and a framework that starts with fair trade that puts people and profits before planet.

Congress needs to reject Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority as these documents show the Obama administration has been misleading the people and the Congress while trying to bully other nations. This flawed agreement and the secrecy essential to its becoming law need to be rejected.

Public Citizen has been analyzing the secret documents and revealed that the Obama administration "is demanding terms that would limit Internet freedom and access to lifesaving medicines throughout the Asia-Pacific region and bind Americans to the same bad rules, belying the administration’s stated commitments to reduce health care costs and advance free expression online." Public Citizen asserts that, at least in terms of health, this deal is the worst yet-- worse than the crap Clinton or the Bushs saddled us with. Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s global access to medicines program: “The Obama administration’s shameful bullying on behalf of the giant drug companies would lead to preventable suffering and death in Asia-Pacific countries. And soon the administration is expected to propose additional TPP terms that would lock Americans into high prices for cancer drugs for years to come.” 



The leak shows the United States seeking to impose the most extreme demands of Big Pharma and Hollywood, Public Citizen said, despite the express and frequently universal opposition of U.S. trade partners. Concerns raised by TPP negotiating partners and many civic groups worldwide regarding TPP undermining access to affordable medicines, the Internet and even textbooks have resulted in a deadlock over the TPP Intellectual Property Chapter, leading to an impasse in the TPP talks, Public Citizen said.




…Last week, the AARP and major consumer groups wrote to the Obama administration to express their “deep concern” that U.S. proposals for the TPP would “limit the ability of states and the federal government to moderate escalating prescription drug, biologic drug and medical device costs in public programs,” and contradict cost-cutting plans for biotech medicines in the White House budget.



 Other U.S.-demanded measures for the TPP would empower the tobacco giants to sue governments before foreign tribunals to demand taxpayer compensation for their health regulations and have been widely criticized. “This supposed trade negotiation has devolved into a secretive rulemaking against public health, on behalf of Big Pharma and Big Tobacco,” said Maybarduk.



“It is clear from the text obtained by WikiLeaks that the U.S. government is isolated and has lost this debate,” Maybarduk said. “Our partners don’t want to trade away their people’s health. Americans don’t want these measures either. Nevertheless, the Obama administration-- on behalf of Big Pharma and big movie studios-- now is trying to accomplish through pressure what it could not through persuasion.”



“The WikiLeaks text also features Hollywood and recording industry-inspired proposals-- think about the SOPA debacle-- to limit Internet freedom and access to educational materials, to force Internet providers to act as copyright enforcers and to cut off people’s Internet access,” said Burcu Kilic, an intellectual property lawyer with Public Citizen. “These proposals are deeply unpopular worldwide and have led to a negotiation stalemate.”



“Given how much text remains disputed, the negotiation will be very difficult to conclude,” said Maybarduk. “Much more forward-looking proposals have been advanced by the other parties, but unless the U.S drops its out-there-alone demands, there may be no deal at all.”


Progressives already oppose this agreement and with Obama now mistrusted by most Americans, there's a chance they can stop this one in its tracks. Raul Grijalva, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told us this morning why progressives in Congress are opposing something so vehemently that Obama is pushing: "The TPP is one of those rare deals with no redeeming qualities. It’s bad for the environment, bad for working people, bad for our neighbors and bad for our economy. It would somehow manage to limit banking oversight, flood this country with unsafe products and offshore countless American jobs all at the same time. It’s not a question for me of why progressives oppose it, it’s how anyone can invent a reason to support it."

Grijalva was one of 151 Democratic congressmembers-- from liberals like Alan Grayson, Barbara Lee, Judy Chu and Mark Pocan to conservatives like Dan Lipinski, Mike McIntyre, Kyrsten Sinema and Sean Patrick Maloney-- to sign onto a letter to Obama from Rosa DeLauro and George Miller (who does nothing without a nod from Pelosi) that tells him if he wants to get support for fast tracking this garbage bill, he better look elsewhere. The letter:

We write to express our serious concern with the ongoing negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement (FTA), a potential agreement of tremendous consequence for our country. Specifically, we remain deeply troubled by the continued lack of adequate congressional consultation in many areas of the proposed pact that deeply implicates Congress’ constitutional and domestic policy authorities.

For some time, members of Congress have urged your administration to engage in broader and deeper consultations with members of the full range of committees of Congress whose jurisdiction touches on the numerous issues being negotiated. Many have raised concerns relating to reports about the agreement’s proposed content. While your Administration’s goal was to sign a TPP FTA at the October 2013 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, we believe that to date the process has failed to provide adequate consultation with Congress. Such opportunity for input from Congress is critical as the TPP FTA will include binding obligations that touch upon a wide swath of policy matters under the authority of Congress.

Beyond traditional tariff issues, these include policies related to labor, patent and copyright, land use, food, agriculture and product standards, natural resources, the environment, professional licensing, competition, state-owned enterprises and government procurement policies, as well as financial, healthcare, energy, e-commerce, telecommunications and other service sector regulations. In light of the broad scope of today’s trade agreements, it is even more vital that Congress have a fulsome role in shaping these pacts’ terms. Given our concerns, we will oppose  “Fast Track” Trade Promotion Authority or any other mechanism delegating Congress’ constitutional authority over trade policy that continues to exclude us from having a meaningful role in the formative stages of trade agreements and throughout negotiating and approval processes.

Congress, not the Executive Branch, must determine when an agreement meets the objectives Congress sets in the exercise of its Article I-8 exclusive constitutional authority to set the terms of trade. For instance, an agreement that does not specifically meet congressional negotiating objectives must not receive preferential consideration in Congress. A new trade agreement negotiation and approval process that restores a robust role for Congress is essential to achieving U.S. trade agreements that can secure prosperity for the greatest number of Americans, while preserving the vital tenets of American democracy in the era of globalization.

Twentieth Century “Fast Track” is simply not appropriate for 21st Century agreements and must be replaced. The United States cannot afford another trade agreement that replicates the mistakes of the past. We can and must do better.

We are deeply committed to transforming U.S. trade policy into a tool for creating and retaining family-wage jobs in America, safeguarding the environment, maintaining consumer protection and improving the quality of life throughout the country.  We look forward to working with you to ensure that Congress and the Executive Branch are working together to meet that critical goal.

The list of signatories against fast tracking this crap isn't just the hippies. 18 of 21 full committee ranking members and 72 subcommittee ranking members are on board as are Democratic Leadership figures Jim Clyburn and Steve Israel (not to mention DeLauro herself, chair of the Steering and Policy Committee). Even half the corporately owned and subsidized New Dems have signed the letter!