Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Bad Trade Deal Ahead

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Deal Reached, Tell Congress To Vote NAY!
On Monday, October 5, 2015, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman announced that the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations have finally reached an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). "We, the trade ministers of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam are pleased to announce that we have successfully concluded the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiation," said U.S. Trade Representative Froman at the Trans-Pacific Partnership Ministerial Press Conference, held in Atlanta, Georgia.
 
With a consensus now reached among the 12 participatory TPP nations, a final official text of the TPP is soon expected to be drafted prior to reaching lawmakers. According to Congressional Quarterly (CQ), "Officials still have to draft and review what they have agreed in principle."
 
Although CQ also states that "Congress is likely to vote on the agreement in early 2016," Congressional lawmakers could in fact vote on the agreement as early as this year (2015) pending how quickly the final TPP text is drafted and subsequently transmitted to Congress. The New York Times estimates that the "full 30-chapter text will not be available for perhaps a month."
 
Congress' narrow passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) or "fast track" earlier this year, ensures an expedited up-or-down vote without debate or amendment for the final TPP agreement.
 
As The New American magazine noted in an online article, posted on March 31, 2015, about WikiLeaks unauthorized release of key chapters of the TPP agreement, one of the most obviously objectionable portions of the TPP texts is the outrageous assertion that the documents remain secret even after they are finally passed! The New American reported:
 
Not only are the negotiations being conducted in secrecy, and not only are the TPP text documents being withheld from the public and the public's elected representatives, but even more outrageous is the effort by the TPP negotiators to keep the agreement (or at least certain portions of the agreement and the negotiating process) secret for four years after it goes into effect!
Chapter 2 of the TPP text begins the following classification notice:
 
Derived from: Classification Guidance dated March 4, 2010
Reason: 1.4(b) Declassify on: Four years from entry into force of the TPP agreement or, if no agreement enters into
force, four years from the close of the negotiations.
 
* This document must be protected from unauthorized disclosure, but may be mailed or transmitted over unclassified e-mail or fax, discussed over unsecured phone lines, and stored on unclassified computer systems. It
must be stored in a locked or secured building, room, or container.
Despite Froman's announcement of a final TPP accord reached, its text is likely to remain classified from the American public for several years even after they have been passed by Congress. Although the full contents of what has been agreed to may not become known for several years, we already do know some of the provisions contained in the insidious anti-sovereignty TPP agreement thanks to the courageousness of certain statesmen who have read the agreement.
 
After visiting the secret reading room where a draft copy of the TPP is housed, in Congress, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alab.) wrote an open letter to President Obama, inquiring and warning about how the TPP "creates a new transnational governance structure known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission." Of the secretive proposed TPP Commission, Sen. Sessions further elaborated and likening it the European Union (EU), "The details of this new governance commission are extremely broad and have the hallmarks of a nascent European Union, with many similarities."
 
The governing executive body of the EU is the European Commission (EC). And like the TPP, the EU also began as an ostensibly simple trade agreement known as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1952, established by the Treaty of Paris the previous year.
 
Considering the rapid growth and transformation of the ECSC into the supranational entity that the EU is today, we dare not take Senator Sessions' concerns lightly. Henceforth, it is imperative that we put a stop to it by contacting our congressional lawmakers and urge them to oppose final passage of the TPP.
 
Please phone your representative (202-225-3121) and senators (202-224-3121) in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which would abrogate U.S. national sovereignty and independence to a supranational EU-style Trans-Pacific Union.
 
Click here to send an editable pre-written email to your representative and senators and urge them to oppose and vote NAY on passage of the final TPP agreement.
 
Source:John Birch Society, jbs.org
 
Comments
 
Record level bribes were paid to federal legislators just to pass TPA Fast Track. The Trans Pacific Partnership TPP Trade Agreement is finished, but we won’t be allowed to read it.  Let your Congressmen and Senators know that this is one mistake you will use to remove them from office.  If they approve this trade agreement, we will lose our sovereignty to a world court.  It’s time to raise hell now.
 
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

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