Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)

“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

                               -----------------------------------------

Trans Pacific Partnership Is “Corporatist Power Grab”

It will increase the cost of borrowing, make prescription drugs more expensive, destroy privacy, harm food safety,  and – yes -  literally act to destroy the sovereignty of the U.S. and the other nations which sign the bill.



You know you have a transparency problem when citizens of a democracy need to rely on WikiLeaks for details on changes to laws on Internet use, labor, environmental and food-safety standards, and the cost and availability of drugs.

TPP is not really about trade. The tariff barriers and quotas between the TPP countries are already low in most cases. Rather the point of the deal is to put in place a structure of regulations that will be more friendly to the large corporations who are in many cases directly part of the negotiating process.

The provisions in the agreement will overrule measures passed by national,  state, and local legislative bodies, in effect stripping democratically elected officials of much of their authority. Since most of the text is still secret we can only speculate on what the final agreement will include.

The leaked chapter on intellectual property indicated that it would likely  mean sharply higher drug prices in many countries since the TPP would  strengthen patents and related restrictions on selling drugs. The final  agreement may limit the ability of governments to regulate fracking. 

In the United States, federal law prohibits state and local governments from  requiring disclosure of the chemicals used in the fracking process. This makes it far more difficult to detect pollution of ground water and drinking water. The TPP may include a similar provision.

It may also include restrictions on the ability of governments to regulate the financial sector.

                                          ---------------------------------------------


                                     Members and Potential Members (TPP)


 Country/Region        Status                                        Date
 Brunei                       Original Signatory                           June 2005
 Chile                         Original Signatory                           June 2005
 New Zealand            Original Signatory                           June 2005
 Singapore                 Original Signatory                            June 2005
 United States                Negotiating                                  February 2008
 Australia                       Negotiating                                  November 2008
 Peru                             Negotiating                                  November 2008
 Vietnam                        Negotiating                                 November 2008
 Malaysia                       Negotiating                                 October 2010
 Mexico                         Negotiating                                 October 2012
 Canada                         Negotiating                                 October 2012
 Japan                            Negotiating                                 March 2013
 Taiwan                     Announced Interest                         September 2013
 South Korea            Announced Interest                          November 2013


Other countries that have expressed interest in TPP membership are Taiwan, the Philippines, Laos, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Indonesia. Cambodia, Bangladesh and India