Free Trade Agreements

Newsletter: The Contagion Of Courage

February 14, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Blockades, Energy, Environment, fast track, FCC, Fracking, Free Trade Agreements, Internet, ISIS, Michael Brown, Net Neutrality, Pipelines, Racism, Tar Sands, TPP, Trade, Ukraine, Venezuela, Wars and Militarism

When our colleagues take brave actions, others are inspired. George Lakey describes how courage develops in movements. He lists some key ingredients to overcome fear: people working in community to empower each other, envisioning a successful action and spreading the contagion of courage. Lakey describes courage as each of us expanding beyond our comfort zones and adds that our training for actions should include opportunities to step outside our comfort zone. He suggests we need to view the rapid heartbeat and adrenalin during an action not as fear, but as excitement. Envisioning the whole story - where the story starts, the action being taken and its successful impact - emboldens us and calms our fears of uncertainty. We learn courage in community because courage is contagious.

Top Democrat Denied Access To Trade Deals

February 14, 2015 Dana Liebelson, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! fast track, Free Trade Agreements, TAFTA, TPP, Trade, TTIP

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, wants to view an unredacted copy of the proposed text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership(TTIP). He wants to bring his chief of staff, who has a top security clearance, and he wants to be able to take notes privately. He also wants to review documents that show the position of each country participating in the agreements, as well how the U.S. position has changed over the course of the negotiations. In a letter this week, Doggett accused Michael Froman, the United States Trade Representative (USTR), of avoiding his requests since January. "USTR has provided no legal justification for denying such Member and staff review," wrote Doggett. The text of TPP is treated as a state secret -- to a degree. Access to TPP texts is limited to members of Congress and staffers on the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee who have an official security clearance. Hundreds of corporate lobbyists and executives are also given access . . .

Syriza Official Vows To Kill TAFTA: ‘Gift To European People’

February 3, 2015 Andrea Germanos, www.commondreams.org Resist! Europe, Free Trade Agreements, Greece, TTIP

An official with Greece's newly elected Syriza party may have sounded the death knell for a proposed EU-U.S. trade deal that has faced a mountain of opposition from civil society. The deal is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), now facing itseighth round of talks between negotiators this week in Brussels. The TTIP, which would be the biggest trade deal ever, has been criticized as a corporate-friendly deal that threatens food and environmental safety under the guise of "harmonization" of regulations. Georgios Katrougkalos, now deputy minister for administrative reform, confirmed what he had told EurActiv Greece ahead of his Syriza party's victory last week: that his parliament would not ratify the trade deal.

Mobilized & Winning, Now It’s Time to Escalate

January 30, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Organize! fast track, Free Trade Agreements, TAFTA, TPP, Trade, TTIP

Since the President’s State of the Union message where he announced his plan to push corporate trade agreements and seek Fast Track trade promotion authority, the movement against Fast Track, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and globalized trade has grown. Instead of the bump in support that Obama expected after the State of the Union, opposition has increased inside Congress and in the grass roots. This week Senator Grassley saidthat currently they don’t have 60 votes in support of Fast Track and therefore it could not pass a filibuster. If Wyden demands that Congress sees the text of the TPP and has true involvement in the negotiations before they are finalized, then he and Hatch will not reach agreement and the Republicans will have to go it alone. In the House there are even more challenges for Fast Track. Chuck Porcari of the Communication Workers (CWA) writes: “House Speaker John Boehner has said that the White House needs to deliver at least 50 House Democrats if Fast Track has any hopes of passing, especially now that the White House is trying to whip together 80 Democrats in the House and New Democrat Coalition is trying to cobble together at most 40 votes. . . . According to a story by Inside U.S. Trade, ‘one informed source questioned whether the New Democrats actually have an idea of which lawmakers will provide the 40 ‘yes’ votes they are seeking.’”

When Obama Pushes Fast Track In SOTU, Here’s The Facts

January 16, 2015 Dave Johnson, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Free Trade Agreements, Obama, TPP

President Obama is likely to use the State of the Union to push for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the rigged "fast track" trade promotion authority. Trade policies that are rigged to boost the interests of the giant, multinational corporations at the expense of the rest of us are not good at all. "Trade" agreements and "offshoring" of jobs have become synonymous. But "trade" doesn't at all have to be about moving American jobs and factories out of the country so that executives can pocket the pay difference and the difference in the cost of enforcing environmental protections. Our trade negotiating process is rigged from the start. Giant, multinational and Wall Street corporate interests are at the negotiating table. Consumer, labor, environmental, human rights, democracy, health and all the other stakeholder representatives are excluded and the results of these negotiations reflect this.

USTR Protests Demand: Stop The Secrecy, Release The Texts

December 8, 2014 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Corporatism, Free Trade Agreements, TAFTA, TPP

This week TPP trade negotiators are in Washington, DC. The 12 countries have been unable to reach agreement as the United States demands extreme corporate power undermining the sovereignty of nations. On Sunday night Popular Resistance began the week of negotiations with a Light Brigade putting messages on the US Trade Representative's office in Washington, DC. Sit-in at front door of USTR Dec 8 2014. Photo by Elias Weston-Farber. Sit-in at front door of USTR Dec 8 2014. Photo by Elias Weston-Farber. On Monday morning members of Popular Resistance held a 'Sit-in to End the Secrecy' on the front steps of the USTR office . As Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators and USTR staff arrived for their first day of meetings this week, demonstrators demanded that they stop hiding the text of the trade agreement and instead make it available to the public telling them "secret negotiations are anti-democratic." After several hours of blocking the front entrance and disrupting business by chanting, singing and banging on a cow bell, pots and blowing whistles, the protesters were joined by close to 200 more people.

Letter To Trade Activists: While They Play Poker, Let’s Play Chess

November 20, 2014 Public Citizen, www.citizen.typepad.com Organize! Free Trade Agreements, Protest, TPP

Is President Obama really going to sell us out on trade? Did Sen. McConnell have a full or half smile in the last press conference where he talked about Fast Track? Is Rep. Boehner really going to have a showdown with President Obama over immigration and how will that impact Fast Track? What about the news stories stating that TPP will be signed next month? Oh, and how do the XL pipeline and deal with China on carbon emissions factor in? Comrades, don’t let the results of the elections, and the political posturing that’s happened since, drive you crazy, distract you, or cause you to lose hope. We have a path to victory! Democrats lost control of the Senate, but we did not lose control over our campaign to stop corporate-driven, job-offshoring, democracy-stifling “free trade” agreements by stopping President Obama from getting Fast Track trade authority. In fact, we have a chance to bury Fast Track once and for all.

Veolia Water Company Slams Into Detroit!

September 5, 2014 Jay Burney, www.climate-connections.org Educate! Detroit, Free Trade Agreements, Privatization, Water

The city of Detroit’s state appointed emergency manager has hired the notorious Veolia North America, the American subsidiary of the equally notorious Veolia Environment, headquartered in Paris. Veolia, one of the leading privatizers of water systems in the world and Veolia North America has colonized American cities, especially those located on the Great Lakes. The Company has been hired to “advise” the city on “how to find cost savings” in the sewer and water department. The city has now opened up bids on privatizing the water and sewer system in Detroit, which has been resisted for years. Wait, it only gets worse. The United States is in the middle of negotiating a trade deal with the European Union, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, aka TTIP, which could undermine communities ability to halt hostile privatizations efforts, hinder attempts to reclaim water systems from EU corporations and make it harder to hold private water companies accountable. Just what Detroiter’s that are already suffering human rights violations and access to water need! We see the future and it is here.

Tar Sands, Trade Rules And Gutting Human Rights For Corporate Profit

August 22, 2014 Patrick Tsai, www.iatp.org Educate! Canada, Corporatism, Free Trade Agreements, Tar Sands

A new report released today from IATP takes an in-depth look at how tar sands have developed from an unconventional, inefficient energy source to the spotlight of the corporate agenda as conventional oil supplies dwindle. Tar Sands: How Trade Rules Surrender Sovereignty and Extend Corporate Rights follows the development of energy policy from NAFTA up to current free trade negotiations to illustrate that while energy sources evolve, one trend remains constant: The protection of corporate profits at the expense of human rights, sovereignty and the environment. With new free trade agreements in negotiation, the time for action is here: The public needs a seat at the negotiating table. The Washington Post’s disclosure last month of yet another leaked EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiating document on Energy and Raw Materials (ERM) brings to light the overwhelming emphasis placed on dismantling the United States’ ability to govern its own energy resources. Pressure to repeal the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), due to new-found U.S. energy reserves through hydraulic fracturing, stands as most controversial to environmentalist and anti-globalist. Instituted in 1975 in response to the 1973 OPEC oil crisis, the EPCA ensures domestic supply of oil by preventing U.S.-produced crude oil from being exported to foreign countries.

Germany Rejects Canada-EU Trade Deal

August 14, 2014 The Guardian, www.politicolnews.com Educate! Canada, Free Trade Agreements, Germany

Europe has not agreed to the EU- Canada trade deal which is a land mine of corporate legal jargon, that would destroy sovereign rights. Firstly the details of this agreement have not been disclosed to the public fully and clearly, most people think it is a great idea. These two happy faces seem to think they have a trade deal called the (CETA) that the European Union can accept however – hold the photo ops. It appears the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is trying to write in some clauses that would leave European countries exposed and open to lawsuits from corporations, similar to the badly drafted TPP deal. The European- Canada deal has traps and Germany has announced it will not sign it. Stephen Harper’s government has written in legal language that would negate Europe’s environmental and health laws, just for starters. Germany is not buying the CETA, nor should any other European countries because it would negatively affect both Canadians and European current laws and economy.

TPP Over?

August 6, 2014 Jayant Menon, www.establishmentpost.com Educate! Free Trade Agreements, TPP

Why is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) taking so long to conclude? It has already missed three deadlines, the latest being October 2013. President Barack Obama’s recent Asia visit did not produce the widely anticipated push towards the finish line. And what will the TPP will look like when finally concluded? Despite WikiLeaks’ best efforts, the negotiations are walled by secrecy. Will the TPP be the comprehensive twenty-first century agreement proponents tout? Or will it wallow as a watered-down compromise, riddled with exemptions, as detractors predict? A useful starting point in explaining the delay is to look at the countries involved. In 2005, four small open economies — New Zealand, Chile, Brunei and Singapore — began talking about a free trade agreement. It began to grab headlines when the US embraced the TPP in 2009 as part of its ‘pivot to Asia’. Four other nations joined discussions soon after — Australia, Peru, Vietnam and Malaysia — followed by Canada, Mexico and Japan. These 12 countries are a highly diverse group by any measure. First, unlike other plurilateral cooperation agreements, the TPP is widely dispersed geographically. There is nothing regional about it, with members from four of the world’s seven continents. And it is just as economically diverse. Australia’s per capita income is about 40 times that of Vietnam. The US economy is around 1000 times the size of Brunei. All this diversity suggests finding common ground when negotiating would not be easy.

U.S. Accused Of Forcing EU To Accept Tar Sands Oil

July 19, 2014 Carey L. Biron, www.ipsnews.net Educate! Canada, European Union (EU), Free Trade Agreements, Tar Sands, TTIP, US

Newly publicised internal documents suggest that U.S. negotiators are working to permanently block a landmark regulatory proposal in the European Union aimed at addressing climate change, and instead to force European countries to import particularly dirty forms of oil. Environmentalists, working off of documents released through open government requests, say U.S. trade representatives are responding to frustrations voiced by the oil and gas industry here. This week, U.S. and E.U. officials are in Brussels for the sixth round of talks towards what would be the world’s largest free-trade area, known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). “These documents show that the U.S. is simply not interested in an open, transparent [negotiation] process.” -- Bill Waren “These documents show that the U.S. is simply not interested in an open, transparent [negotiation] process,” Bill Waren, a senior trade analyst with Friends of the Earth U.S., a watchdog group, told IPS. “Rather, U.S. representatives have been lobbying on the [E.U. regulatory proposal] in a way that reflects the interests of Chevron, ExxonMobil and others.” The oil industry has repeatedly expressed concern over the European Union’s potential tightening of regulations around transport fuel emissions, first proposed in 2009 for what’s known as the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD). Yet according to a report released Thursday by Friends of the Earth Europe, the sector now appears to have convinced the U.S. government to work to permanently block the implementation of this standard.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Will Make NSA Spying Easier

July 18, 2014 Justin Ling, www.motherboard.vice.com Educate! Free Trade Agreements, NSA, Surveillance, TPP

With paranoia over NSA surveillance reaching a fever pitch, foreign governments are making a reasonable plea: bring our data home. But the Americans are doing their best to ensure that the world’s Internet data stays on U.S. soil, well within the reach of their spies. To do so, American negotiators are leveraging trade deals with much of the developed world, inserting language to ensure “cross-border data flows”—a euphemism that actually means they want to inhibit foreign governments from keeping data hosted domestically. The trade deals they’re influencing—the Trans-Atlantic Partnership (TPP), the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)—are all so secretive that nobody but the governments themselves are privy to the details. But thanks to the Australians and Wikileaks, both of whom have leaked details on TPP, we have a pretty good idea of what’s going on in the latest Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade agreement that will act as a sort of NAFTA for Asia-Pacific region nations. America is, essentially, the world’s data server. Since the dawn of the internet itself, every database of import has been hosted in the grand US of A. But now, foreign governments are starting to see the benefit of patriating their citizens’ private information.

Bringing +19,000 Voices To The Secretive TPP Negotiations

July 15, 2014 Open Media, www.openmedia.ca Organize! Canada, Free Trade Agreements, TPP

For over two years now, we've been pushing back against the secretive and extreme Trans-Pacific Partnership, specifically the provisions around intellectual property, which would censor the Internet and require your Internet service provider to make serious violations of your privacy rights. Those behind this deal - the 12 negotiating countries, and the industry lobbyists who get privileged access to the negotiations - never make it easy for civil society groups to participate in the negotiating rounds. This time really was a new low, however, as at the last minute the location of the talks changed from Vancouver to Ottawa - 3,500 kilometres away. Since we'd already promised the over 19,000 people who submitted comments using our Internet Voice tool that we would share their concerns with the TPP decision-makers, I made the trip to Ottawa. I'm taking this opportunity to tell you a little bit about what that was like - to take you under-the-hood of how it feels to challenge huge government and corporate bureaucracies in this way, by bringing public perspectives into what should be a democratic process.

U.S. And EU Civil Society: TTIP Bad For Many Sectors

July 12, 2014 Kate Colwell, www.foe.org Resist! Environment, Food and Agriculture, Free Trade Agreements, health, TTIP

The next round of negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will take place July 14–18 in Brussels, almost exactly a year since the first round in Washington, DC. Since that time, movements for local and regional farming and food systems and public health advocates on both sides of the Atlantic have coordinated efforts to raise their concerns around the agreement. Civil society groups from the U.S. and EU are deeply concerned that the agreement could serve to lower standards on food safety and public health. “We must not let free trade agreements like TTIP move us towards even more intensive food production without thinking about how this will impact on the environment, public health, food safety, rural development and local communities. Civil society in both the EU and the U.S. is ready to raise the bar and instead of starting a race to the bottom,” said Robert Pederson of ARC2020, the European sustainable agriculture coalition.

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