Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is emerging as a champion in the fight over provisions the upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement that could undermine our (and other) country’s ability to keep the giant multinational corporations under control.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday voiced new concerns over President Obama’s trade agenda as congressional Democrats ramp up efforts to slow the administration’s bid to finalize a major free-trade pact in Asia that the president has called a top priority.
… The senators are focused on three specific provisions, and they do not state outright opposition to the 12-nation pact, which is still being negotiated.
[. . .]In her letter, Warren raises concerns that the deal could include provisions that would allow foreign companies to challenge U.S. policies before a judicial panel outside the domestic legal system, increasing exposure of American taxpayers to potential damages.
The letter (click for full PDF) expresses concern that these corporate courts could undo our efforts to rein in the excesses of the financial industry that led to the 2008 crash. At the same time several House Democrats, Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr., Lloyd Doggett, Linda T. Sanchez, John Lewis and Jim McDermott, are sending a similar letter expressing concern about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnerstip (TTIP), a companion agreement to the TPP.
But the lobbyists’ agenda is not America’s agenda. Americans are deeply suspicious of trade deals negotiated in secret, with chief executives invited into the room while the workers whose jobs are on the line are locked outside. They have been burned enough times on tax deals that carefully protect the tender fannies of billionaires and big oil and other big political donors, while working families just get hammered. They are appalled by Wall Street banks that got taxpayer bailouts and now whine that the laws are too tough, even as they rake in billions in profits. If cutting deals means helping big corporations, Wall Street banks and the already-powerful, that isn’t a victory for the American people — it’s just another round of the same old rigged game.
I have voted against only one of President Obama’s nominees: Michael Froman, a Citigroup alumnus who is currently storming the halls of Congress as U.S. Trade Representative pushing trade deals that threaten to undermine financial regulation, workers’ rights, and environmental protections. Enough is enough.
TPP is being negotiated in secret, so we don’t have all the information about what is in it. However, portions have leaked and what we have seen is not promising. Also, the record of previous “NAFTA-style” trade agreements tells us these agreements are negotiated using a rigged process designed to deliver agreements that boost the giant, multinational corporations at the expense of people in the US and other countries.
We can stop this, and after we stop this we can demand that existing agreements be renegotiated to protect working people, lift wages and protect the environment worldwide.
Richard Long, a fellow with Campaign for America’s Future, contributed to this post.