[CTC] U.S. “Stalling” Could Force Acceptance of Onerous TPP

[Arthur Stamoulis]

IATP's more-detailed backgrounder on the TPP and agriculture is  
attached.


http://www.iatp.org/blog/201303/tpp-doubling-down-on-failed-trade-policy

TPP: Doubling down on failed trade policy
The 16th round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)  
began this week in Singapore. That trade deal has the potential to  
become the biggest regional free-trade agreement in history, both  
because of the size of the economies participating in the negotiations  
and because it holds open the possibility for other countries to  
quietly “dock in” to the existing agreement at some point in the  
future. What started as an agreement among Brunei Darussalam, Chile,  
New Zealand and Singapore in 2005 has expanded to include trade talks  
with Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States and  
Vietnam. Japan and Thailand are considering entering into the  
negotiations, and others are waiting in the wings.

And yet, despite the potential of this agreement to shape (and in very  
real ways override) a vast range of public policies, there has been  
very little public debate on the TPP to date. Governments have refused  
to release negotiating texts. Media attention on agriculture and the  
TPP has focused on New Zealand’s insistence on access to U.S. dairy  
markets and Japan’s concerns over rice imports.

While important, that debate is much too narrow. The TPP is not only  
about lowering tariffs. It has the potential to greatly expand  
protections for investors over those for consumers and farmers, and  
severely restrict governments’ ability to use public policy to reshape  
food systems. The fundamental causes of recent protests across the  
globe over food prices, the rising market power of a handful of global  
food and agriculture corporations, as well as the dual specters of  
rising hunger and obesity around the world, point to the need to  
transform the world’s food systems, not to lock the current  
dysfunction situation in place.

In Who’s at the Table? Demanding Answers on Agriculture in the Trans- 
Pacific Partnership, IATP raises questions around investment, food  
safety (especially in emerging new food technologies), procurement and  
competition policy that should guide an informed public debate around  
the right rules for agricultural trade.

Trade policy should start from such goals as ending global hunger,  
enhancing rural and urban incomes and employment, and encouraging a  
transition to climate friendly agriculture—not from the bottom line of  
multinational corporations. The burden of proof should be on  
governments to demonstrate that the commitments being negotiated in  
the TPP will advance the human rights to food and development. Given  
the stakes for agriculture and food systems in all of the countries  
involved, they should include all stakeholders in a frank discussion  
of the trade rules that are needed to ensure that food sovereignty,  
rural livelihoods and sustainable development take precedence over  
misguided efforts to expand exports at any cost. That is what should  
be on the table in Singapore.

Read Who’s at the Table? Demanding Answers on Agriculture in the Trans- 
Pacific Partnership.




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