Boggart Abroad: 05/31/15

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Julian Assange On The TPP: "Deal Isn't About Trade, It's About Corporate Control"

It’s mostly not about trade. Only 5 of the 29 chapters are about traditional trade.

– Julian Assange referring to the trans Pacific Partnership in a recent interview with Democracy Now

Most of my attention to the 'free trade' treaties being pushed by the Obama administration has been focused on the USA / European Union (EU) 'free' trade deal, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) because we are a British publication.

The Pacific Rim equivalent, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been more in the news recently however lately, as US President Barck Obama has been busy bribing and bullying the US Senate and House of Representatives into abdicating their constitutional role of holding the administration to account and granting Obama the powers of an autocrat so that he may 'fast track' TPP into law without Concress being allowed to vote on it, debate it or even know what is in it.

As the Obama Administration scrambles to attain “fast-track” authority from Congress, the content of this unbelievably dangerous gift to multi-national corporations is being kept secret from the public, and for very good reason.

For some background on the TPP and where it stands, see:

Trade Expert and TPP Whistleblower – “We Should Be Very Concerned about What’s Hidden in This Trade Deal”

As the Senate Prepares to Vote on “Fast Track,” Here’s a Quick Primer on the Dangers of the TPP

What little we know about the TPP has come from whistleblower site, Wikileaks. This is what Julian Assange thinks of this “trade” treaty in his own words.

The Obama administration is lobbying hard for Congress to pass a trade promotion authority (TPA) and to quickly approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement that is on the verge of being finalized.

The administration and its supporters on this issue, including leading Republicans, argue that the case for TPP rests on basic economic principles and is only strengthened by the findings of modern research. On both counts their claims are greatly exaggerated – particularly with regard to the notion that more trade, on these terms, is necessarily better for the United States.

There is a strong theoretical and empirical case – dating back to David Ricardo in 1817 – that freer trade should make countries better off. However, modern-day trade agreements, including those currently being negotiated, are very different from earlier experiences with trade liberalization.

The TPP is not only – perhaps not even mostly – about freer trade, and thus who gains and who loses is very much dependent on what exactly are the details of the agreement. The exact nature of the provisions matters and at this point, because the TPP text is not available to the public, we cannot be sure whom this trade agreement will help or hurt within the United States or elsewhere. To read see a video and read the full transcript of Julian Assange's interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, click the link below.

Julian Assange On TTIP / TPP

President Obama was hoping to get two trade agreements to bolster his legacy in the waning days of his administration. Earlier this week however, the German Economy Minister stated the were 'de facto dead'. The US-Asia TPP talks have been dead as a doornob for some time although Obama is playing out a charade of having Congress vote on the draft, even though it will not be ratified by any important players around the Pacific Rim.