[CTC] More excellent TPP statements

Thu Nov 5 14:48:04 PST 2015

New statements from Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Earth, the US Business and Industry Council, National Nurses United and United Food & Commercial Workers…

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

http://www.defenders.org/press-release/trans-pacific-partnership-falls-short-wildlife <http://www.defenders.org/press-release/trans-pacific-partnership-falls-short-wildlife>
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP FALLS SHORT FOR WILDLIFE

 <http://www.defenders.org/print/9008>
Press Contact: Haley McKey, 202-772-0247, hmckey at defenders.org <mailto:hmckey at defenders.org>
Washington (November 5, 2015)– The New Zealand government has released the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive trade agreement made among twelve Pacific Rim nations including the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia. The text reveals the final results of years of secretive negotiations, tackling a wide range of issues from intellectual property to environmental protection. However, the environment chapter of the agreement falls far short of the desperately-needed policy changes that would make a real difference for the world’s wildlife and their vanishing habitat.

The following is a statement from Jamie Rappaport Clark, President and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife:

“Now that the text of the Trans-Pacific-Partnership is available to the public, it is disappointingly clear that this is not the tougher language we had hoped for. The environment chapter is weak and fails to provide the necessary requirements and stronger penalties desperately needed to better fight poaching, protect wildlife habitat and shut down the illegal wildlife trade. The agreement also leaves our own domestic environmental laws vulnerable to legal challenge internationally, outside of our own judiciary system. 

“Most alarmingly, climate change isn’t mentioned a single time in the environment chapter. It is ridiculous that in 2015, twelve of the world’s nations would construct a trade deal of this magnitude and not even consider the effects of climate change on industries like agriculture or fishing, or ways to prevent worsening global warming through our own economic activities. Climate change is happening right now: Species are disappearing and extreme weather events like hurricanes, crippling drought and wildfires are become more prevalent across the world. Yet this trade agreement won’t even acknowledge it.

“Although presented as a groundbreaking trade agreement in regards to wildlife, the Trans-Pacific Partnership includes no commitments not already present in existing international and regional agreements for regulating wildlife trade or preventing wildlife trafficking. It includes no provisions for fighting climate change. We urge Congress to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership and call for a plan that would actually make a difference for wildlife and our natural heritage.”

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http://www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2015-11-trans-pacific-partnership-text-exposes-threat-to-environment#sthash.5HNFXcNG.dpuf <http://www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2015-11-trans-pacific-partnership-text-exposes-threat-to-environment#sthash.5HNFXcNG.dpuf>

Trans Pacific Partnership text exposes threat to environment and climate

Posted Nov. 5, 2015 / Posted by: Kate Colwell

WASHINGTON, D.C. – After years of secret negotiations, the text of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement was released today. The text confirms the worst fears of environmentalists.

The environment chapter, which actually only deals with a narrow range of conservation measures, is largely unenforceable and is substantially weaker than trade deal conservation provisions negotiated by President George W. Bush. In fact, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative has never brought suit or otherwise effectively enforced trade deal conservation obligations. 

The TPP investment chapter would allow firms to sue governments for billions in money damages if climate, environmental or public health regulations interfere with expected future profits. The TPP is designed to protect “free trade” in dirty energy products such as tar sands oil, coal from the Powder River Basin, and liquefied natural gas shipped out of West Coast ports. The result would be more climate change from carbon emissions across the Pacific.

Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth had this statement:

President Obama has sold the American people a false bill of goods. The Trans Pacific Partnership fails President Obama's pledge to make the TPP an environmentally sound trade agreement.  Frankly this is not surprising; the text of this Trans Pacific trade deal was negotiated in secret by Mike Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative, a former Citibank executive and Obama fundraiser. Froman took care of his friends on Wall Street and in corporate board rooms at the expense of sound environmental and climate policy. Congress must reject the TPP deal.

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Expert contact: Bill Waren, (202) 222-0746, wwaren at foe.org
 <mailto:wwaren at foe.org>Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, kcolwell at foe.org <mailto:kcolwell at foe.org>

- See more at: http://www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2015-11-trans-pacific-partnership-text-exposes-threat-to-environment#sthash.5HNFXcNG.QE02bIRh.dpuf <http://www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2015-11-trans-pacific-partnership-text-exposes-threat-to-environment#sthash.5HNFXcNG.QE02bIRh.dpuf>

                                                                                                                                                                               Contact Kevin L. Kearns: 202 957 9994 (cell)

Domestic Manufacturers Call Full Text of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement a "Very Bad Deal for America."

November 5, 2015, Washington, DC.  With the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement finally made public today, advocates for domestic U.S. manufacturing are calling the agreement a very bad deal for America.

U.S. Business & Industry Council President Kevin L. Kearns says that the the full agreement, which runs to 1,121 pages and 30 chapters, is full of special deals for various U.S. trading partners, foreign corporations, and multinational U.S. businesses, with little to promote domestic job growth in the United States.

Said Kearns, "The TPP is anything but the free trade agreement it purports to be.  The use of the term 'free trade' is simply a codeword designed to attract the support of Congressional Republicans who lurch zombie-like to support anything so labeled, without examining the fine print."

Kearns added, "A real free-trade deal could be written on a single sheet of paper, with commitments to remove all tariffs and non-tariff barriers of any kind."

Kearns says there are some key failings in the final TPP deal:

1. Lax rules on importation of foreign-made autos and auto parts into the United States.  TPP lowers the already too low NAFTA parts content standard, and permits Toyota and other Japanese automakers to export vehicles to the United States that contain a large percentage of parts produced in non-TPP countries. And so, other Asian countries such as China, who are not even TPP partners are beneficiaries. 

Kearns commented: "Apparently, one of America's biggest economic problems is that Toyota does not sell enough cars and trucks here, and thus does not displace enough American jobs. The TPP deal allows Toyota and other Japanese automakers a special concession to keep their global supply chains intact."

2. False expectations for labor and environmental enforcement among trading partners.  The TPP contains labor and environmental chapters hailed by President Obama as the "most progressive ever."  

Kearns commented: "The president is deceiving us.  These chapters are completely unenforceable. Are we really going to have a fleet of labor rights and environmental inspectors cruising around Vietnam, checking to make sure that every last factory is being fair to its workers and not polluting?  Or tramping through the jungles of Malaysia to make sure that the government has put an end to the human trafficking and forced labor camps? No, it's just not humanly possible."

3. A failure to address Value Added Taxes (VAT).  All of the other TPP countries except Brunei utilize a VAT taxation system.  This is a major trade barrier that imposes a direct tax on U.S. exports, but it is completely unaddressed in the TPP. 

Kearns commented: "Mr. Froman claims to have cut 18,000 tariffs in the TPP, but he has completely neglected the most significant tariff of all — foreign VAT taxation."

4. A complete disregard by President Obama of bipartisan Congressional instructions to address currency manipulation on the part of America's trading partners.  While the dollar is the world's reserve currency and is freely traded in markets throughout the world, a significant number of TPP countries manipulate their currencies to give their goods a competitive advantage over American products.  

Kearns commented: "In the TPP, there are only side agreements to discuss currency manipulation via reporting requirements and consultative mechanisms.  What these side deals mean is that a country can continue to intervene in currency markets, and then the U.S. can discuss the matter — without the ability to do anything about it. More chit-chat currency diplomacy."

5. The TPP offers no real benefit for the U.S. economy.  A Peterson Institute study shows a minimal 0.4 percent gain for the American economy by 2025. That's hardly enough to start reducing America's immense and growing $18 trillion national debt. And two U.S. Department of Agriculture studies show no net gain whatsoever in agriculture from the TPP. 

Kearns commented, "Why sign the agreement if it doesn't expand the American economy and help reduce the national debt? Two words: Special Interests."

6. The TPP's complex series of rules and regulations serve to benefit each country's 'national champion' companies and industries, with the big winners in the U.S. being the major Wall Street banks, insurance companies, and multinational manufacturer-outsourcers.  The TPP has, in addition to 30 main chapters, a total of 58 side agreements (called "side letters.") And Japan alone possesses 14 of these side letters, with each one laying out special conditions for Japanese participation and special deals for Japanese economic sectors.  

Kearns commented: "Free trade? Hardly.  Congress should vote a resounding 'no' on this poorly negotiated deal." 

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The USBIC was founded in 1933 to represent the concerns of America's small and medium-sized business community. Member companies are typically family-owned or privately held, mostly in the manufacturing sector. They are often the major employers in their home communities and the mainstays of the local economy. This membership composition has given the USBIC an outlook on issues more rooted in main street America than other national business groups, which are dominated by giant multinational corporations with global agendas and dwindling national loyalties.     

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UNITED STATES BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY COUNCIL · 512 C ST. NE · WASHINGTON, DC 20002 

 (202) 266-3980 · (202) 266-3981 FAX · COUNCIL at USBUSINESS.ORG <mailto:COUNCIL at USBUSINESS.ORG> · WWW.AMERICANECONOMICALERT.ORG <http://www.americaneconomicalert.org/> · WWW.TRADINGAWAYJOBS.US <http://www.tradingawayjobs.us/>  

For Immediate Release                                                                      November 5, 2015
Contact:  Charles Idelson, 510-273-2246 (415-559-8991, cell) 

Nurses: Final TPP Text Even Worse Than Advertised
Handouts to Big Pharma, Corporate Dispute Process
Pose Significant Threat to Public Health and Safety

Release of the full text of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade confirms nurses concerns about broad threats to public health and safety in the U.S. and other nations, National Nurses United said today.

“Despite the promises and reassurances offered by the Obama administration, the final text is even worse than prior reports had predicted. No wonder it was concealed for so long,” said RoseAnn DeMoro, NNU Executive Director and a vice-president of the AFL-CIO. “We will continue to demand that Congress reject this fatally flawed agreement, and hold accountable those legislators who vote against the public interest.”

“Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has played a laudable leadership role in long opposing the TPP, and the prior corporate trade deals that have harmed our nation, is again speaking for all of us. All legislators must now step up and join this fight to defeat the TPP.”

Nurses are particularly appalled, DeMoro said, at monopoly pricing protections for giant pharmaceutical firms “that could be a death sentence for countless patients in need of affordable medications around the world,” and the expansion of the ability of corporate giants to use corporate tribunals to seek to overturn public health and safety laws.

On drug prices, initial reports when the final agreement was announced last month, suggested a major “compromise” by the U.S. in reducing monopoly pricing rules for drug giants from 12 years, what the U.S. had first demanded, to five years, particularly for biologic medications, drugs derived from living organisms.

But an analysis of the final text shows those rules littered with loopholes, allowing the U.S. to pressure TPP signers to expand the monopoly control – and their inflated prices – for eight years or longer, according to a review by the Citizens Trade Campaign.

Patent exclusivity rules, that affect when cheaper, generic versions of high priced name brand drugs, can go on the market, can produce long delays in access to affordable medicines, under the TPP. 

“These gifts to the billionaire drug companies are a cruel and disgraceful threat to the lives of millions of people,” DeMoro said. “The pretext of giving the pharmaceutical corporations expanded monopoly control to ‘repay’ them for research and development costs is particularly hollow considering that a substantial percentage of those costs are paid for with public funds with drugs developed at public universities.”

NNU is also appalled at the provisions regarding the so-called Investor State Dispute Settlement ISDS process that allow global corporations to sue to overturn laws and regulations, including public safety and environmental protections.  

As has already occurred with prior trade deals, the ISDS process allows corporations to challenge domestic laws through extrajudicial tribunals, staffed by corporate attorneys, that can demand taxpayers reimburse corporations for lost “expected” profits. In prior trade pacts, this provision has forced some countries to drop health, safety, or environmental rules rather than face bankruptcy from billion dollar ISDS rulings.

As the Citizens Trade Campaign analysis shows, the TPP would actually “expand U.S. liability by widening the scope of domestic policies and government actions that could be challenged” under ISDS rules. “More than 1,000 additional corporations in TPP nations, which own more than 9,200 subsidiaries here, could newly launch ISDS cases against the U.S. government.”

Further, contrary to the insistence of TPP proponents, “there are no new safeguards that limit ISDS tribunals’ discretion to issue ever-expanding interpretations of government’s obligations to investors and order compensation on that basis,” says CTC.

“This agreement,” DeMoro concluded, “is an all out assault on not only health and safety but also on the democratic rights of the American people to pass public protections. It’s another reminder that the pharmaceutical industry and other corporate lobbyists, who wrote many of these provisions, continue to dominate and corrupt our political system.”

“Nurses and working people will not be silent in working to stop and overturn this dangerous agreement,” DeMoro said.

For Immediate Release November 5, 2015 
Contact: press at ufcw.org <mailto:press at ufcw.org>
UFCW PRESIDENT PERRONE STATEMENT ON RELEASE OF TPP TEXT
Washington, D.C. — Today, Marc Perrone, International President of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the largest private sector union in the nation, released the following statement in response to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal text becoming public.
“Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton don’t agree on much, but both believe that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a terrible trade deal for America.

“In a nation so divided politically, a trade deal must be truly devastating to hard-working families when leading Presidential candidates from both parties find common ground in opposing it.

“Of course, the American people should not take anyone’s word for it. Finally, everyone will now have the opportunity, after months of backroom deals and secret negotiations, to read for themselves the truth about how this trade deal will destroy jobs and lead to lower wages in America.  

“Our message to Members of Congress is a simple one – listen to the concerns of UFCW members, everyday Americans and even the leading voices in the current Presidential race – and defeat the TPP once and for all.

“We may not be able to change every mind, but we will remember and hold accountable those elected leaders, Democrat or Republican, who choose to stand with corporate special interests, instead of doing what is right for hard-working men and women and their families.”

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