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NYT: Obama's Covert Trade Deal

OGBDeacon07

OGBDeacon07

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Can we get RJ to defend Obama on this?

Because I don't see any possible angle from which to defend him.

Obama’s Covert Trade Deal
By LORI WALLACH and BEN BEACHY
Published: June 2, 2013


WASHINGTON — THE Obama administration has often stated its commitment to open government. So why is it keeping such tight wraps on the contents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the most significant international commercial agreement since the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995?

The agreement, under negotiation since 2008, would set new rules for everything from food safety and financial markets to medicine prices and Internet freedom. It would include at least 12 of the countries bordering the Pacific and be open for more to join. President Obama has said he wants to sign it by October.

Although Congress has exclusive constitutional authority to set the terms of trade, so far the executive branch has managed to resist repeated requests by members of Congress to see the text of the draft agreement and has denied requests from members to attend negotiations as observers — reversing past practice.

While the agreement could rewrite broad sections of nontrade policies affecting Americans’ daily lives, the administration also has rejected demands by outside groups that the nearly complete text be publicly released. Even the George W. Bush administration, hardly a paragon of transparency, published online the draft text of the last similarly sweeping agreement, called the Free Trade Area of the Americas, in 2001.

There is one exception to this wall of secrecy: a group of some 600 trade “advisers,” dominated by representatives of big businesses, who enjoy privileged access to draft texts and negotiators.

This covert approach is a major problem because the agreement is more than just a trade deal. Only 5 of its 29 chapters cover traditional trade matters, like tariffs or quotas. The others impose parameters on nontrade policies. Existing and future American laws must be altered to conform with these terms, or trade sanctions can be imposed against American exports.

Remember the debate in January 2012 over the Stop Online Piracy Act, which would have imposed harsh penalties for even the most minor and inadvertent infraction of a company’s copyright? The ensuing uproar derailed the proposal. But now, the very corporations behind SOPA are at it again, hoping to reincarnate its terms within the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s sweeping proposed copyright provisions.

From another leak, we know the pact would also take aim at policies to control the cost of medicine. Pharmaceutical companies, which are among those enjoying access to negotiators as “advisers,” have long lobbied against government efforts to keep the cost of medicines down. Under the agreement, these companies could challenge such measures by claiming that they undermined their new rights granted by the deal.

And yet another leak revealed that the deal would include even more expansive incentives to relocate domestic manufacturing offshore than were included in Nafta — a deal that drained millions of manufacturing jobs from the American economy.

The agreement would also be a boon for Wall Street and its campaign to water down regulations put in place after the 2008 financial crisis. Among other things, it would practically forbid bans on risky financial products, including the toxic derivatives that helped cause the crisis in the first place.

Of course, the agreement must eventually face a Congressional vote, which means that one day it will become public.

So why keep it a secret? Because Mr. Obama wants the agreement to be given fast-track treatment on Capitol Hill. Under this extraordinary and rarely used procedure, he could sign the agreement before Congress voted on it. And Congress’s post-facto vote would be under rules limiting debate, banning all amendments and forcing a quick vote.

Ron Kirk, until recently Mr. Obama’s top trade official, was remarkably candid about why he opposed making the text public: doing so, he suggested to Reuters, would raise such opposition that it could make the deal impossible to sign.

Michael Froman, nominated to be Mr. Kirk’s replacement, will most likely become the public face of the administration’s very private negotiations and the apparent calculation that underlies them. As someone whose professional experience has been during the Internet era, he must know that such extreme secrecy is bound to backfire.

Whatever one thinks about “free trade,” the secrecy of the Trans-Pacific Partnership process represents a huge assault on the principles and practice of democratic governance. That is untenable in the age of transparency, especially coming from an administration that is otherwise so quick to trumpet its commitment to open government.

Lori Wallach is the director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, where Ben Beachy is the research director.
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I agree with you somewhat, and I agree with George Carlin. If some of that is true I am opposed to the President on the manufacturing and Wall Street items.

But to answer the question of why he is waiting to release it until they are finished, don't you think it is pretty obvious? This Congress has zero interest in working with Obama on anything. I would wait too, they will just obstruct any progress at every turn to prevent an Obama policy victory. Like this guy said:

Ron Kirk, until recently Mr. Obama’s top trade official, was remarkably candid about why he opposed making the text public: doing so, he suggested to Reuters, would raise such opposition that it could make the deal impossible to sign.
Click to expand...

no shit, Sherlock.
 
"From another leak, we know the pact would also take aim at policies to control the cost of medicine. Pharmaceutical companies, which are among those enjoying access to negotiators as “advisers,” have long lobbied against government efforts to keep the cost of medicines down. Under the agreement, these companies could challenge such measures by claiming that they undermined their new rights granted by the deal."

I oppose this.

And yet another leak revealed that the deal would include even more expansive incentives to relocate domestic manufacturing offshore than were included in Nafta — a deal that drained millions of manufacturing jobs from the American economy.

I worked on NAFTA. this isn't so. After NAFTA most of the manufacturing jobs we lost didn't land in Mexico. Thus NAFTA had nothing to do with it.

"The agreement would also be a boon for Wall Street and its campaign to water down regulations put in place after the 2008 financial crisis. Among other things, it would practically forbid bans on risky financial products, including the toxic derivatives that helped cause the crisis in the first place."

I've often posted that one of Obama's biggest failures is not to have thousands of perp walks from banks, AIG and investment houses.

I've often said new financial products should go through testing like other products. We wouldn't let a drug be sold without testing. We wouldn't let car brakes be sold with testing or kid's pajama's. There's absolutely no excuse not to test financial instruments.

As no not telling Congress much, unfortunately their actions made fast tracking necessary. They have blocked and obstructed everything. This has been their only platform for five years. Due to the hatred of the GOP, he basically had no choice.

As you can see there are things I agree with and some with which disagree.
 
Last edited:
WakeandBake said:
I agree with you somewhat, and I agree with George Carlin. If some of that is true I am opposed to the President on the manufacturing and Wall Street items.

But to answer the question of why he is waiting to release it until they are finished, don't you think it is pretty obvious? This Congress has zero interest in working with Obama on anything. I would wait too, they will just obstruct any progress at every turn to prevent an Obama policy victory. Like this guy said:



no shit, Sherlock.
Click to expand...

And, yet, they sure do know how to get things done when it benefits both of them:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpoli...ss-quietly-overhauled-its-insider-trading-law
 
Newly leaked chapter of the TPP shows that the treaty would turn over our country's sovereignty to corporate conglomerates.

More here:
http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/bl...ter-contains-special-rights-for-corporations/

The new texts reveal that TPP negotiators are considering a dispute resolution process that would grant transnational corporations special authority to challenge countries’ laws, regulations and court decisions in international tribunals that circumvent domestic judicial systems.

“We are just beginning to analyze the new texts now, but they clearly contain proposals designed to give transnational corporations special rights that go far beyond those possessed by domestic businesses and American citizens,” said Stamoulis. ”A proposal that could have such broad effects on environmental, consumer safety and other public interest regulations deserves public scrutiny and thorough public debate. It shouldn’t be crafted behind closed doors.”

During the last round of TPP negotiations held in Addison, Texas in May, CTC delivered over 42,000 petition signatures addressed to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, urging that TPP negotiating texts be released publicly. To date, there has been no formal response from Ambassador Kirk to that petition.
Click to expand...

Democracy Now breaks it down: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/6/14/breaking_08_pledge_leaked_trade_doc
 
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