TPP Eats, Shoots & Leaves

During the debate leading up to the passage of NAFTA, the stationery of an outfit lobbying for the treaty trumpeted: “North American Free Trade Agreement -- Exports. Better Jobs. Better Wages.”

So close.

The correct punctuation, of course, is: “North American Free Trade Agreement -- Exports Better Jobs, Better Wages.”

Expect similar lapses in grammar and punctuation -- and accuracy -- during the upcoming consideration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Reading list:
TPP: What is it and why does it matter? (BBC News).
The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership 2016 also can be accessed in French and Spanish language versions on the site of New Zealand Foreign Affairs & Trade.
TPP is a secretive, multinational trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement. The main problems are two-fold: (1) digital policies that benefit big corporations at the expense of the public and (2) lack of transparency (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
More Job Offshoring, Lower Wages, Unsafe Food Imports: It's Worse than We Thought (Public Citizen).

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words Dept.:

 

In early November 2015, according to Public Citizen, after seven years of secret negotiations -- with the public, press and policymakers locked out, the final TPP text was released. In chapter after chapter, the agreement is worse than expected, satisfying the demands of 500 official U.S. trade advisers representing corporate interests at the expense of the public interest. The text reveals that the pact replicates many of the most controversial terms of past pacts that promote job offshoring and push down U.S. wages. If passed, the TPP will:

-> make it easier for big corporations to ship our jobs overseas, pushing down our wages and increasing income inequality
-> flood our country with unsafe imported food
-> jack up the cost of medicines by giving big pharmaceutical corporations new monopoly rights to keep lower cost generic drugs off the market
-> empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards
-> ban Buy American policies needed to create green jobs
-> roll back Wall Street reforms
-> sneak in SOPA-like threats to Internet freedom and
-> undermine human rights.

Reading List:
The Government of Canada is committed to being transparent, open and consultative with Canadians on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
"TPP raises significant concerns about citizens’ freedom of expression, due process, innovation, the future of the Internet’s global infrastructure, and the right of sovereign nations to develop policies and laws that best meet their domestic priorities. In sum, the TPP puts at risk some of the most fundamental rights that enable access to knowledge for the world’s citizens:" What is TPP? (Electronic Frontier Foundation).

Provisions that allow foreign investors to bypass the federal courts could undermine U.S. legal protections: Is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Unconstitutional? by Alan Morrison (The Atlantic).
The “Investor-State Dispute Settlement,” or ISDS, may sound mild, but don’t be fooled. Agreeing to ISDS in this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty: The Trans-Pacific Partnership clause everyone should oppose by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Washington Post).