Yesterday, the US House of Representatives failed to pass a key element of a package of bills that would have given Obama the ability to fast-track a trade deal with Pacific-Rim nations (TPP), and by inference the Eurean version (TTIP). This might prove a temporary setback, but it is a sign of the growing backlash against both trade deals This is what George Monbiot wrote recently in The Guardian:
“Investor-state rules could be used to smash any attempt to save the NHS from corporate control, to re-regulate the banks, to curb the greed of the energy companies, to renationalise the railways, to leave fossil fuels in the ground. These rules shut down democratic alternatives. They outlaw leftwing politics. This is why there has been no attempt by the UK government to inform us about this monstrous assault on democracy, let alone consult us…Wake up, people we’re being shafted.”
Aside from the above, the secrecy about these deals is astounding and undemocratic. Taking the Senate floor recently, Barbara Boxer shared her story about trying to read the TPP’s text:
As soon as I get there, the guard says to me ‘hand over your electronics.’ OK. I gave over my electronics. Then the guard says ‘You can’t take notes.’ I said ‘I can’t take notes?!’ ‘Well, you can take notes, but you have to give them back to me and I’ll put them in a file.’ So I said ‘Wait a minute, I’m going to take notes, and then you’re going to take my notes away from me? And then you’re going to have them in a file and you can read my notes?'”
Thus, an elected official can’t make notes, can’t make real public criticisms, and it emerges that the President’s advisors are not even up to date on changes to the deal. And we’re supposed to believe that this deal is being negotiated in the best interests of the American and European people?
These trade deals are actually good only for corporations, and thus offend against Epicurean principles of justice and a level playing field for everyone. Obama is being either naive or devious. Whichever one it is, I for one don’t like it.
Comments by Rep. Alan Grayson:
(1) Our trade debt stands at eleven trillion dollars ($11,000,000,000,000.00). That’s more than $35,000 for every human being in America – including you. “Fast Track” would pave the way for new trade bills that would increase that. How are we ever going to pay that money back?
(2) Fast Track applies to whatever the Executive Branch calls a trade agreement, even if it has nothing to do with trade.
(3) Fast Track unconstitutionally restricts Congress from holding hearings, conducting investigations, debating a bill and offering amendments – basically, its job. In fact, it could restrict each House Member to only 83 seconds of debate.
(4) No other bills get this special treatment – not bills on taxes, or Social Security, or defense, or transportation, or healthcare. Nothing.
(5) Fast Track applies to trade bills that the Executive Branch hasn’t even released to the public.
(6) None of the “standards” that Fast Track sets for trade agreements is enforceable – not one single standard.