[CTC] Civil Society Reacts to Finally-Released TPP Text

Thu Nov 5 11:15:11 PST 2015

Flooded by emails about the TPP today?  Remember, you can switch your listserv preferences to “daily digest” to get one email a day if the volume here is too much.  Beyond there, here are pull quotes from many of today’s press statements in one easy place...

http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2015/11/05/civil-society-reacts-to-finally-released-tpp-text/
Civil Society Reacts to Finally-Released TPP Text <http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2015/11/05/civil-society-reacts-to-finally-released-tpp-text/>
The United States formally entered into negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in February 2008. For years afterwards, the public had to rely on leaked documents <http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2014/10/17/leaked-tpp-texts-reveal-bonanza-special-rights-corporations/> to learn what U.S. negotiators were proposing in our names.

On November 5, 2015, text for the TPP <http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Treaties-and-International-Law/01-Treaties-for-which-NZ-is-Depositary/0-Trans-Pacific-Partnership-Text.php> was officially released for the first time. Within hours, a broad range of civil society organizations representing the labor, environmental, family farm, consumer, LGBT and other social movements issued statements opposing the TPP. Here are some examples.

ORGANIZED LABOR
“It is clear that the threats of this expansive new agreement outweigh its benefits — for good jobs, for democracy, for affordable medicines, for consumer safety, and for the environment. The hardworking families of the AFL-CIO will join with our allies to defeat the TPP.”
— AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka <http://www.aflcio.org/Press-Room/Press-Releases/AFL-CIO-on-Administration-Releasing-Text-of-TPP-Deal>
“Even a cursory review demonstrates how this trade deal fails working families. It forces U.S. workers to compete with the 65-cent an hour wages of Vietnamese workers and the slave labor employed in Malaysia. It allows multinational corporations to challenge environmental, financial, consumer and other regulations through international tribunals – and outside the court systems of member countries. It pays lip service to addressing real concerns about currency manipulation that costs American jobs and leads to more jobs being sent offshore. And it allies the U.S. with countries that abuse their own citizens, including Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia.”
— Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Chris Shelton <http://www.cwa-union.org/news/entry/cwa_statement_on_release_of_the_trans-pacific_partnership>
“On nearly all matters of immediate relevance to American working families and their communities, this agreement fails to deliver. Not only are the labor provisions warmed over language from failed past agreements, but the agreement actually takes a giant step backward, with the inclusion of Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Mexico. Additionally, investors and corporations can still challenge basic worker and environmental protections while rules of origin are weaker than even the ones found in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and there are no provisions to bring currency manipulation under control.”
— Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger <http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/Machinists+Union+Deplores+Missed+Opportunities+in+TPP+Trade+Pact/11042116.html>
“Americans’ fears over how the TPP will tamp down on wages, allow foreign companies to sue governments and create even larger trade deficits due to a lack of currency manipulation controls are very real and justified. And because Congress approved fast track trade promotion authority earlier this year, there’s not a damn thing elected officials can do about it except oppose ratification of this bad deal when it comes to a vote.”
— Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa <http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hoffa-says-release-of-tpp-text-does-little-to-allay-workers-concerns-about-deal-300173254.html>
CONSUMER ADVOCATES
“The TPP will increase the volume of imported and potentially risky foods coming into the United States, but tie the hands of the border inspectors who are the last line of defense between the shipper and the supermarket. The TPP gives companies new powers to second guess inspectors and push uninspected food onto the market.”
— Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter <http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/tpp-text-reveals-broad-new-powers-attack-food-safety-food-labeling-laws>
“For years we’ve warned that the excessive secrecy around the TPP would lead to an agreement that ignored Internet users, artists, and creators in favour of laws that benefit only the giant media conglomerates. Now that we know just how bad the TPP really is, we’ll be redoubling our efforts to put a stop to this costly Internet censorship plan.”
— OpenMedia Campaigns Manager Josh Tabish <https://openmedia.ca/news/final-tpp-text-threatens-internet-freedom-and-will-force-canada-overhaul-copyright-%E2%80%93-will-trudeau-go>
“Apparently, the TPP’s proponents resorted to such extreme secrecy during negotiations because the text shows TPP would offshore more American jobs, lower our wages, flood us with unsafe imported food and expose our laws to attack in foreign tribunals. When the administration says it used the TPP to renegotiate NAFTA, few expected that meant doubling down on the worst job-killing, wage-suppressing NAFTA terms, expanding limits on food safety and rolling back past reforms on environmental standards and access to affordable drugs.”
— Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch Director Lori Wallach

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS
“The TPP is an act of climate denial. While the text is full of handouts to the fossil fuel industry, it doesn’t mention the words climate change once. The agreement would give fossil fuel companies the extraordinary ability to sue local governments that try and keep fossil fuels in the ground… As the world accelerates towards a clean energy future, the TPP is a dangerous detour that must be avoided.”
— 350.org Policy Director Jason Kowalski <http://350.org/press-release/350-org-tpp-text-confirms-a-handout-to-fossil-fuels/>
“This trade agreement would allow foreign corporations to challenge our health, safety and environmental protections in a foreign tribunal outside our legal system, and it would weaken those bedrock safeguards in the United States. While there are some positive conservation measures, the agreement’s substantial shortcomings should lead Congress to reject it.”
— NRDC International Program Director Jake Schmidt <http://www.nrdc.org/media/2015/151105.asp>
“It’s no surprise that the deal is rife with polluter giveaways that would undermine decades of environmental progress, threaten our climate, and fail to adequately protect wildlife because big polluters helped write the deal… Many provisions in the deal’s environment chapter are toothless and fail to offer any of the protections proponents of this deal have touted. Some provisions even fail to meet the minimum standards of environmental protection established in the ‘fast-track’ law and included in past trade deals negotiated under the George W. Bush administration.”
— Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune <https://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2015/11/sierra-club-tpp-text-concrete-evidence-toxic-deal>
FAMILY FARM ORGANIZATIONS
“This agreement has been peddled to farmers and ranchers as a potential goldmine for farm exports. But as with other trade deals, these benefits are likely to be overshadowed by increased competition from abroad, paired with an uneven playing field that will not only reduce revenues for farmers and ranchers but will also speed the loss of U.S. jobs… While NFU will continue to analyze the text of the agreement, we already know TPP includes no enforceable language to address currency manipulation, an effective maneuver used by our competitors to immediately tilt the playing field in their favor, even after signing an agreement of this scope and magnitude, having the potential to completely wipe out any gains.”
— National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson <https://brianallmerradionetwork.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/11-05-15-nfu-says-tpp-will-fail-family-farmers-and-ranchers/>
“The TPP will continue to drive the U.S. cattle and sheep industry’s untenable trade deficits to new heights. The cattle industry is already burdened by an accumulated deficit of $46.1 billion with the 20 countries that we already have free trade agreements with…. The TPP will expand the multinational meatpackers’ practice of cherry-picking low-cost cattle and sheep production from around the world, allowing them to strategically ship those animals and meat products into the United States duty free to create even more market volatility and to drive domestic prices even lower.”
— R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America CEO Bill Bullard

LGBT ORGANIZATIONS
“It is troubling that the United States would bring countries such as Brunei and Malaysia, with their state-sponsored persecution of LGBT individuals, into the fold of the TPP. But it is unconscionable that our nation would not use the leverage of the TPP negotiations to insist that these nations make improvements on ending LGBT persecution and discrimination.”
— Pride at Work Executive Director Jerame Davis

HEALTH ADVOCATES
“We know that seniors are right to be worried about the agreement’s effect on prescription drug prices. Indeed, the deal would keep lower cost generics drugs off the market and line the pockets of pharmaceutical industry executives.”
— Alliance for Retired Americans Executive Director Richard Fiesta <http://retiredamericans.org/newsroom/press-releases/view/2015-11-tpp-text-proves-seniors-have-been-right-to-worry-abo>

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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