TPP

What’s Going On With The TPP

By Maira Sutton in Electronic Frontier Foundation - Over the past month, trade officials have been frantically working to resolve outstanding disagreements over provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the midst ofspeculation that the deal is in deep trouble. At this late stage of negotiations, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has pretty much abandoned all remaining pretense of transparency in its consideration of these remaining policy issues. Since the failure to conclude the deal at the meeting in Hawaii over the summer, the USTR has held several closed-door meetings between high-level officials to finalize the agreement and it is under intensifying pressure to finish it off as soon as possible. In mid-August, there was a week-long meeting in Mexico to do a "legal scrub" of the TPP text, in order to have the text ready to go for an eventual signing. Toward the end of August, officials from Canada and Mexico went to Washington to continue discussions, likely around auto trade issues.

Knowledge Ecology Publishes The Chapters Of The TPP

September 12, 2015 James Love, www.keionline.org Educate! Finance and the Economy, TPP

By James Love in Knowledge Ecology Online - On June 4, 2015, KEI asked USTR to provide the names of the TPP Chapters. The contents of the chapters are all officially secret, but we thought the names of the chapters should be public, and made a request for the chapter names under the Freedom of Information Act (FIOA). Today, more than 3 months later, USTR has responded to that FOIA. According to USTR, as of September 10, 2015, the names of the TPP Chapters are as follows: Intial Provisions and General Definitions, Trade in Goods, Textiles and Apparel, Rules of Orgin, Customs, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade Remedies, Investment, Cross Border Trade in Services, Financial Services, Temporary Entry for Business Persons, Telecommunications, Electronic Commerce, Government Procurement, Competition Policy, State Owned Enterprises, Intellectual Property. . .

The US & WTO Demolish India’s Solar Energy Ambitions

September 6, 2015 Charles Pierson, www.counterpunch.org Educate! India, Solar Energy, TPP, Trade, WTO

By Charles Pierson for Counterpunch - 400 million Indians - one quarter of India's population - have no electricity. But as far as the United States and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are concerned, they can keep sitting in the dark. Last month, the news was leaked that a WTO dispute panel had found that India's subsidies for solar power contravene WTO trade rules. India must now remove the subsidies or face trade sanctions. The United States filed the WTO complaint in 2013. The US alleged that India's subsidies for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (NSM) discriminate against foreign suppliers of solar components. The WTO decision confirms yet again that neoliberalism always favors trade over environmental protection. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) contains all the same features which enabled the WTO's decision against India's solar subsidies.

How Latin American Integration Leads To The TPP

September 6, 2015 Francisco Dominguez, www.opendemocracy.net/francisco-dominguez/latin-america-integration-i Educate! Cuba, Imperialism, Latin America, TPP, Venezuela

By Francisco Dominguez for Open Democracy - Impressive steps have also been taken to eliminate racism, bigotry, gender and sex discrimination, and intolerance towards sexual diversity. In all these regards Latin America shows not only that another world is possible but is being built right now. The region, however, confronts a US that despite some promises and gestures from President Barack Obama in seeking to normalize relations with Cuba and Venezuela, includes many broadly unaccountable and unelected US bodies which continue with a Cold War-like policy of intervention and interference in the internal affairs of many Latin American nations. Many such destabilization plans involve the large-scale illegal funding by the NED, USAID, IRI, NDI, and many other more secretive US outfits of extreme right-wing and violent groups.

Newsletter – Black August, End Neo-Slavery, Resist

August 30, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Arctic drilling, Carbon, Drought, Environmental racism, Fight for 15, Finance and the Economy, Fracking, Gas, Guaranteed basic income, Hurrican Katrina, Iran, Japan, Jeju Island, Korea, Living Wage, Minimum Wage, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Oil, Okinawa, Peace, Political Prisoner, Prison, Prison Labor, Private Prisons, Racism, Solar Energy, Sustainable energy, TISA, TPP, TTIP, Wars and Militarism, Wind, Worker Cooperative, Youth imprisonment

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance - Black August is coming to an end as we commemorate the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As many head back to school, a full season of actions are being planned for the fall to stop the corporate takeover of our communities and world and the push toward neo-slavery. There is a lot of resistance going on. We hope that you have an opportunity this summer to relax and build up your energy for the many actions that are being planned for the fall. If you go to a park, there is one more thing you can do: take a moment to think about the people who inhabited the land before it became a park.

TPP Opponents Protest NZ Prime Minister Fundraiser

August 29, 2015 Eileen Goodwin, www.odt.co.nz Resist! New Zealand, TPP

By Eileen Goodwin for Otago Daily Times - Protesters jostled with police last night as they tried to disrupt a National Party fundraising event in Dunedin. Trans Pacific Partnership opponents hoped Prime Minister John Key would enter through the Savoy restaurant's public entrance, but it is understood he used another door. Mr Key had earlier been guest of honour at the Otago Daily Times Class Act event at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in the Octagon. The protest started outside the art gallery, before moving around the corner to the Savoy, in Princes St. Up to 100 protesters attended, split between the venue's Moray Pl and Princes St entrances. Protesters linked arms in an attempt to keep National Party supporters out of the restaurant. Some supporters pushed their way in.

National Call To Action: Stop The TPP

August 27, 2015 Flush the TPP, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Corporatism, Democracy, TPP, Trade

By Flush the TPP. Now that Congress has given the President authority to Fast Track the TransPacific Partnership, US negotiators are working furiously to complete the deal. The word is that the group negotiations fell apart in Maui so negotiators are meeting in secret one-on-one to work out the final details. There is contention over sections regarding agriculture, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and intellectual property rights. Some countries are hesitant because the TPP is a bad deal for everyone except the transnational corporations and financiers who are set to line their pockets with more cash. Recently, tens of thousands of people took the streets in New Zealand with the message: "TPPA No Way, NZ Walk Away!" This is a crucial time to show greater resistance to his bad deal in the US.

Global Trade And Destruction Of The Amazon

August 25, 2015 Jesse Prentice-Dunn and Ilana Solomon, www.sierraclub.org Educate! Environmental Justice, Extinction, Rainforest, TPP

By Jesse Prentice-Dunn and Ilana Solomon for the Sierra Club. For decades, crews of illegal loggers have traveled deep into Peru’s Amazon rainforest, cutting valuable hardwoods for sale on the international market while threatening indigenous communities, our environment, and the climate. Rampant corruption has plagued Peru’s forest sector, allowing timber mafias to use fraudulent documents in order to obtain permits that they use to illegally harvest timber. According to a study by the World Bank, up to 80 percent of the timber exported from Peru has illegal origins. A new documentary from Al Jazeera shows just how widespread illegal logging is in Peru and how that illegal wood is making its way to the United States.

Stop Corporate Sacrifice Zones From Destroying Everything

August 25, 2015 Lee Camp, www.rt.com/redacted-tonight/ Resistance Report Environment, Food and Agriculture, sacrifice zone, TPP

By Lee Camp on Redacted Tonight. In his new book, Erik Loomis explains how corporations create "sacrifice zones" in which they often decimate the land and people. They do this in areas with poor minority populations because those are the people least likely to have the power to fight against it. We see this across the US but also around the world. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and other rigged corporate trade treaties will make every community into a potential sacrifice zone, unless we stop them. Here's how to protect your community: Step one is to keep the TPP from becoming law. Step two is to scream from the hills about the wrongdoing of major corporations To learn more, comedian Lee Camp breaks down both how this works and how to fight back against it on his show, Redacted Tonight.

Destructive Global Dependencies

August 24, 2015 Ralph Nader, www.blog.nader.org Educate! Finance and the Economy, Free Trade, TPP

By Ralph Nader - Welcome to the world of extreme dependency by the U.S., the world’s biggest economy, on the instabilities of small and large nations overseas. This dependency is exactly what the giant corporations further by pushing globalization, often to misname it “free trade” in order to boost Congressional and White House support for the “global economy”. Although big business won’t go so far as to advocate U.S. dependence-inducing globalized markets for oil, they are pushing for trade agreements that make the U.S. more dependent even on essentials like food and medicines. For example, 80 percent of our seafood is now imported, often through dubiously treated fish farms from China. Eighty percent of the ingredients in the medicines you take come from China and India where there are very few inspectors from the Food and Drug Administration, assuming they can gain entry visas.

Newsletter: The Obvious Blinds Us, Unless The Truth Is Told

August 22, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Climate Change, Climate Justice, Cornel West, Ferguson, Pipelines, Racism, Solar, TAFTA, TPP, TTIP, Wind

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance - It has been a busy two weeks since our last newsletter for #BlackLivesMatter, seeking climate justice, fair wages and stopping the TPP. We have been doing weekly newsletters since Occupy, last week we missed our first week as we were at the Localize This Action Camp of the Backbone Campaign. The reality of our times and of our history is that truth needs a messenger. Truths, especially difficult ones to face, do not become known on their own. Telling the hard to face truths is where movements begin; spreading that truth creates a national consensus for change and is the source for mobilizations that force essential transformations.

Thousands Of Anti-TPP Protesters Rally In New Zealand

August 16, 2015 Staff, www.rt.com Resist! New Zealand, TPP

By Staff for RT - Thousands of demonstrators gathered throughout New Zealand to speak out against the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal on Saturday. Extra police were called in as protesters pushed through barriers in front of the country's parliament building. Large turnouts were also reported in Christchurch, Hamilton and Dunedin. Demonstrations took place in 21 cities and towns throughout the country, according to Radio New Zealand. Auckland saw the biggest turnout, with an estimated 5,000 people calling on the New Zealand government to “walk away” from the TPP agreement. Many held placards reading “Don't trade our needs for corporate greed,” and “Enough is enough.” Opponents in New Zealand say that many of the provisions will undermine the country's sovereignty, giving transnational corporations huge influence over the nation's laws and regulations.

US Consulate To Citizens: Stay Away From New Zealand TPP Protest

August 15, 2015 Andrea Germanos, www.commondreams.org Resist! Government, New Zealand, Politics, TPP, usa

By Andrea Germanos in Common Dreams - Stay away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership protest taking place Saturday in New Zealand's largest city, the United States Consulate has warned its citizens. The Auckland action is one of over 20 that organizers have planned as part of a national day of action against the controversial pending trade deal. The Consulate's security message reads, in part: "Approximately 8,000 people are expected to attend the protest. We urge citizens to avoid the protest march route as even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational. We remind citizens to always exercise caution when in the vicinity of any large gatherings, protests, or demonstrations." Greens trade spokesperson Russel Norman, who is taking part in the actions, told Radio New Zealand that such fears are unfounded.

Corporate Rigged Trade Is A Racial Justice Issue

August 10, 2015 Isaiah J. Poole, www.otherwords.org Educate! Jobs, NAFTA, Racism, TPP, Trade

By Isaiah J. Poole for Other Words - What’s the connection to racial unrest? Simply put, it’s the lack of economic opportunity that results when bad trade deals lead to the disappearance of good-paying jobs. Hundreds of thousands of blue-collar jobs vanished after the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, was signed in 1994. And towns like Ferguson were hit especially hard. The St. Louis metropolitan area, home to 206,000 manufacturing jobs in 1990, only had about 113,000 left by the end of 2014, according to the Labor Department. During that same period, the region saw no net growth in trade, transportation, or utility-sector jobs. “We used to have a ton of light manufacturing, light industrial jobs,” said John L. Davidson, a St. Louis banking lawyer who writes a blog about economic issues. But now, “there are no jobs out there.” The trade deal left the St. Louis region with a mortally wounded tax base intertwined with deep-seated racial bias.

Newsletter – Remembering Through Action

August 8, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Black Lives Matter (BLM), Ferguson, Iran, Mike Brown, Nuclear Weapons, TPP, Wars and Militarism

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance - This week, memorials were held to mark the one year anniversary of the murder of Mike Brown which sparked the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This weekend there are events in Ferguson to mark the anniversary of the deaths of Mike Brown, Kajieme Powell and others. . . The US and its allies recently negotiated an agreement with Iran concerning its nuclear program. This agreement has been hailed as an historic step for diplomacy rather than war. The agreement with Iran is under attack by members of Congress who are beholden to AIPAC. . . This week the American Psychological Association decided to no longer allow psychologists to participate in tortrue. There seemed to be considerable division over the recent findings of the APA’s complicity with torture but in the end six dissidents who urged an end to participation in torutre won near unanimous decision.

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