Trade

Politics Of The Trans-Pacific Partnership

January 4, 2015 Andrew Levine, www.counterpunch.org Educate! fast track, TPP, Trade

There are signs too that there is increasing awareness that the declining fortunes of the vast majority are not just contingent side effects of neoliberal, “pro-growth,” economic policies that Democrats would reform away if only Republicans wouldn’t stop them. These policies are what neoliberalism is about, and promoting neoliberalism is what politicians these days do. Even within the Democratic base, the realization is dawning that Democrats, though not quite as blatant as Republicans, are just as culpable. They too do what their paymasters demand. It is also becoming harder than ever to deny that the trade policies that some Democrats, along with Republicans, have championed since the Bill Clinton days are a root cause of the discontent now rising to the surface. Despite the drivel emanating out of the White House, “free trade” is emphatically not good for nearly everybody. Quite the contrary, nearly everybody is now on to what neoliberal trade policies do.

China’s New Silk Road Threatens US Imperialism

January 1, 2015 Pepe Escobar, www.salon.com Create! China, Europe, Imperialism, Trade, Transportation

November 18, 2014: it’s a day that should live forever in history. On that day, in the city of Yiwu in China’s Zhejiang province, 300 kilometers south of Shanghai, the first train carrying 82 containers of export goods weighing more than 1,000 tons left a massive warehouse complex heading for Madrid. It arrived on December 9th. Welcome to the new trans-Eurasia choo-choo train. At over 13,000 kilometers, it will regularly traverse the longest freight train route in the world, 40% farther than the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway. Its cargo will cross China from East to West, then Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, France, and finally Spain. Today, 90% of the global container trade still travels by ocean, and that’s what Beijing plans to change. Its embryonic, still relatively slow New Silk Road represents its first breakthrough in what is bound to be an overland trans-continental container trade revolution.

Hello Censorship If Secret TISA Pact Is Approved

December 28, 2014 Pete Dolack, www.systemicdisorder.wordpress.com Educate! Finance and the Economy, Net Neutrality, Privacy, Trade

Internet privacy and net neutrality would become things of the past if the secret Trade In Services Agreement comes to fruition. And on this one, the secrecy exceeds even that shrouding the two better-known corporate giveaways, the Trans-Pacific and Transatlantic partnerships. Yet another tentacle in the octopus of multi-national corporations’ attempt to achieve dictatorial control, the Trade In Services Agreement (TISA) is intended to eliminate government regulations in the “professional services” such as accounting and engineering but goes well beyond that, proposing sweeping de-regulation of the Internet and the financial industry. Another snippet of TISA’s text has been leaked, this time by the freedom-of-information organization Associated Whistleblowing Press.

ICC Criticized For Failure To Prosecute Israel

November 7, 2014 Center For Constitutional Rights, www.ccrjustice.org Educate! Blockade, Israel, Law, Palestine, Trade, Türkiye

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) issued the following response to the news that the International Criminal Court (ICC) would not be opening a full investigation into the 2010 Israeli attack on a humanitarian flotilla to Gaza. Israeli forces killed nine people, including 18-year-old U.S. citizen Furkan Doğan who was shot several times as he was filming the 4:00 a.m. raid and then shot in the face at point blank range as he lay there wounded. It is outrageous that the ICC is refusing to prosecute Israeli officials despite acknowledging that there's a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed.

Top 10 Most Pernicious Investor-State Dispute Settlement Lawsuits

October 8, 2014 Lambert Strether, www.nakedcapitalism.com Educate! Capitalism, Finance and the Economy, Trade

The Top Ten examples are taken from Public Citzen’s new report, “Myths and Omissions: Unpacking Obama Administration Defenses of Investor-State Corporate Privileges” [PDF]. I’m not focusing on the Obama administration’s defenses because anybody who’s been paying attention knows they’ll be bullshit anyhow; I think propagating the crazypants pernicious examples will be more effective as polemic. I’m also not going into the resolution of the cases; as anybody who’s every encountered a SLAPP suit knows, even bringing a suit that’s totally without merit can intimidate, if the player bringing the suit has deep pockets. And who has deeper pockets than international investors? So herewith, the list. Readers, regretfully I haven’t been able to rank them, because they are pernicious in so many dimensions at once. If you want to pick the worst, and the second-worst, then have at it!

Critical Moment To Stop Rigged Trade Agreements

August 10, 2014 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Finance and the Economy, Globalization, TAFTA, TPP, Trade

As elections get closer, Democratic Party leaders in Congress are getting the message out to inside-the-beltway activists groups that they are unifying to support giving President Obama some form of Fast Track. Recent letters from member of Congress to the President indicate support for trade with particular stipulations, but the overall message is to continue negotiating. Washington advocacy groups believe that they must also show support for Fast Track or they will find themselves without access or influence. Rather than kowtowing to the usual ‘on the table’ threat from the corrupt bi-partisan Congress, the movement needs to tell them that the only thing on the table is a complete transformation from the failed global trade that rigs profits for big business at the expense of the ecology of the planet and the necessities of the people. It is time to declare the TPP, TAFTA and the Services agreements as dead, develop a new approach to trade and begin to renegotiate past trade agreements like NAFTA that are doing ongoing damage to the economy, planet and people.

Ten Reasons To Say ‘No’ To North Over Trade

August 5, 2014 Ravi Kanth Devarakonda and Phil Harris, www.ipsnews.net Educate! Food Security, India, Trade, WTO

India’s decisive stand last week not to adopt the protocol of amendment of the trade facilitation agreement (TFA) unless credible rules were in place for the development issues of the South was met with “astonishment” and “dismay” by trade diplomats from the North, who described New Delhi’s as “hostage-taking” and “suicidal”. It obviously came as something of a shock for representatives of Northern interests that any party should have the brass neck to place the interests of its constituents on the negotiating table. After all, why should such banal issues as food security and poverty get in the way of a trade agenda heavily weighted in favour of the industrialised countries? New Delhi was demanding nothing more than credible global trade rules to ensure that “development,” including the challenges of poverty, in the countries of the South take precedence over the cut-throat mercantile business interests of the transnational corporations in the North In fact, it was India’s firm stand for permanent guarantees for public stockholding programmes for food security that turned this trade agenda upside down at the World Trade Organization (WTO) last week, putting paid to the adoption of the protocol of amendment for implementation of the contested TFA for the time being.

The Desperate Choices Behind Child Migration

June 28, 2014 Alexandra Early, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Guatemala, Honduras, Immigration, Trade

The vast majority of Salvadorans, like other Central Americans, don’t want to migrate to the U.S. They love their families and communities and would much prefer to stay and work or go to school in their own countries. Creating stricter immigration rules and deporting more children will not stop this wave of forced migrants; only giving them the chance to survive and prosper at home will. The U.S. Government could do a lot to make life better in El Salvador and Honduras. But right now they are doing just the opposite. . . only a dramatic shift in U.S. foreign policy will help change conditions in Central America and ease the humanitarian crisis at our border. The U.S. government must stop pushing free trade and privatization and start funding social programs. But most of all it must stand up for human rights. And these include the right not to migrate but to stay, study, work, speak out and live happily in your own home country.

Alarming New Secret Trade Deal Exposed By Wikileaks

June 24, 2014 David Cay Johnston, www.america.aljazeera.com Educate! Democracy, TISA, TPP, Trade

The draft agreement WikiLeaks released on June 19 is fresh, written in May. It is a model of secret law, blatant in its disregard for transparency, democratic process and history. Its opening page says the terms are to remain secret for five years after negotiations formally end or the proposed new rules take effect. Talks to refine that agreement were to resume Monday in Geneva. The 18-page draft agreement involves 50 nations, which produce more than two-thirds of officially measured global economic activity. That means the consequences of the new rules would be enormous, especially for those living in the more than 140 countries not taking part in the talks. Whether people can get loans or buy insurance and at what prices as well as what jobs may be available will be affected by any new trade rules.

Taiwan Occupy Congress Excalates

March 23, 2014 Staff, www.revolution-news.com Resist! China, Democracy, Occupy, Taiwan, Trade, Video

Taiwan occupation: 30,000 supporters expected on Saturday have arrived, It’s upgraded from opposing unjust trade pact to a war for Taiwan’s democracy! Activists occupying the chamber hall of legislative yuan announced that they would prolong their 120hrs occupy into an unlimited struggle, as President Ma failed to answer their demands about the contentious China trade pact. Starting from Sat, Mar 22, Protesters expand their actions, 1st by calling on the public to join surrounding KMT(the Chinese Nationalist Party) local headquarters nationwide(already happened), now occupy the congress won’t stop until the gov answer the protest with goodwill, withdraw the China trade pact & pass the monitoring legislation!

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