Action Alert – Will the TPP be more of the same? |
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Another NAFTA or Obama’s New Trade Model?
The usual suspects – Big Pharma, agribusiness giants and chronic offshoring multinationals – are hell-bent on more NAFTAs. And unfortunately, there are some in the administration happy to forget President Obama’s fair trade commitments. Thanks to your good work, fierce efforts by the backwards corporate crowd to pass Bush’s leftover NAFTA-style pacts with Colombia, Panama and Korea were repeatedly derailed. As a result, TPP talks have become the venue in which Obama’s trade policy will take shape. The next round of TPP negotiations is set for June in California. If the TPP becomes the first Obama trade deal, it must live up to his pledges to end the NAFTA nightmare and craft a new trade policy that creates – not destroys – the dreams of America’s working families. With attention in Congress focused on other matters and the TPP being conducted behind closed doors by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), it is critical that we alert our Representatives and Senators today about the TPP! TPP negotiations currently include the U.S. and Australia, Chile, Singapore and Peru, New Zealand, Brunei, and Vietnam. The final deal may allow other Asian/Pacific countries to join on as well. The TPP presents both promise and peril. If pro-NAFTA elements in the Obama administration get their way, the TPP would replicate the worst provisions of past NAFTA-type deals. But if we keep up the pressure, TPP negotiations could be used to create a new standard for future trade deals that work for workers, the environment, family farmers, and consumers worldwide. Congress must act to make sure that any TPP represents the trade reform we’ve been promised and deserve. Recently we informed you that the TRADE Act – the comprehensive trade reform bill – has won majority support from House Democrats. With a growing consensus that the TRADE Act is the best pathway out of our job-killing trade policy past, it should also serve as a starting point for the future – and for Obama’s TPP negotiating positions. Congress and the U.S. public won’t settle for anything less than a wholly new trade model – one that creates jobs, protects against climate change and environmental destruction, ensures food and product safety, and doesn’t allow corporations to challenge our laws in foreign tribunals. Thanks for all you do, James Ploeser – Senior Organizer Stay informed and speak out when it counts. Sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network or other online announcements. If you do not wish to receive e-mail messages from Public Citizen in the future, please click here. |
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