The Trans-Pacific Partnership - TPP for short, is a new proposed trade agreement that is moving forward rapidly. Why be concerned? The TPP negotiations are secret, so secret that not a single member of congress has access to any of the proposed draft agreements, yet over 600 multi-national corporations have full access, and they are encouraged to suggest "improvements". In theory this supports "free trade" but in reality it produces the opposite. There have been leaked documents that should raise the hairs on your neck. They are analyzed here.
The news black-out on it in the US is massively effective, for instance this speech by Oregon Rep Peter DeFazio on Sept 9 in the US House of Representatives was not covered by any US news outlet. TPP is off-limits for US news organizations that are critical of it. Just try a Google News search and see what you find in the US press asking critical questions.
The same goes for this letter to President Obama on Aug 2, 2012 from Defazio and 23 bipartisan members of congress. I found the letter on DeFazio's web site, but no where else.
TPP will allow the corporations to bypass "impediments" to trade (i.e. profitability) like generic drugs, food safety, workers rights laws, consumer rights laws, environmental laws, you name it. And not one member of Congress is allowed to see it. Some documents have leaked to the outside world, but are any made public in the US media? Nope. The opposition to it is small in size compared to the might of the multi-nationals, Public Citizen seems to be the major US entity asking questions..
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