TPP: The Fight Goes On

CWA President Chris Shelton exposed the just-announced agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership in an op-ed in The New York Times:

"The Trans-Pacific Pact is a one-sided deal to help the 1 percent," he wrote. "Despite all the hype, it's clear that this TPP will continue decades of one-sided trade policy that gives away U.S. workers' jobs and harms our communities, while benefiting multinational corporations and the 1 percent."

Read the complete column here.

 

On Monday, trade negotiators for the 12 TPP countries announced an agreement, capping nearly six years of secret negotiations, with corporate lobbyists leading the U.S.'s effort.

Shelton said:

"Despite broad promises from the Obama administration and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman that the deal would deliver for middle-class families, working people know that the TPP would be a disaster. It would continue the offshoring of jobs and weakening of our communities that started under the North American Free Trade Agreement and hasn't stopped. It would mean labor and environmental standards that look good on paper but fall flat when it comes to enforcement. It's a corporate dream but a nightmare for those of us on Main Street.

We're still very concerned about the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) process. The window dressing changes adopted in Atlanta don't change the fact that corporations still have an extra-judicial process – ISDS – to enforce their rights. That's not the case for labor and environmental standards.

And we're concerned that the protections given to pharmaceutical companies will mean that life-saving drugs won't be affordable for millions."

Read the full statement here.

CWA Local 3204 CWA members joined the Atlanta #StopTPP Coalition and many environmental, faith, senior citizen and LGBT activists to protest the trade ministerial meeting in Atlanta, GA, where negotiators agreed on a deal for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Opposition to TPP is growing in some of the partner countries, including Canada, Martin O'Hanlon, President of CWA Canada, said. He mentioned meeting former Japanese Agricultural Minister Yamada Masahiko in Atlanta last week leading a Japanese anti-TPP delegation.

"Ordinary people know this deal is being cut for corporations, not for them," O'Hanlon said. "When corporate lobbyists go behind closed doors and negotiate in secret for six years, the deal they are going to come out with will look out for the interests of multinational corporations, not average working people or the environment in any of these countries."

Hillary Clinton Opposes TPP

Hillary Clinton came out against the TPP trade deal, breaking with the Obama administration.

In an interview Wednesday with Judy Woodruff of PBS, Clinton said "As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it."

"I have said from the very beginning that we had to have a trade agreement that would create good American jobs, raise wages and advance our national security and I still believe that is the high bar we have to meet," Clinton said, adding that this TPP deal does not clear that bar.