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Emails Show How Industry Lobbyists Basically Wrote The Trans-Pacific Partnership
An anonymous reader writes: This Techdirt story shows how industry lobbyists influenced the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, to the point that one even openly celebrates that the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) version copied his own text word for word. The email exchange between Jim DeLisi, from Fanwood Chemical, to Barbara Weisel, a USTR official reads: "Hi Barbara – John sent through a link to the P4 agreement. I have taken a quick look at the rules of origin. Someone owes USTR a royalty payment – these are our rules. They will need some tweaking but will likely not need major surgery. This is a very pleasant surprise. I will study more closely over the weekend."
This has become standard practice for the US.
The industry groups write the treaty, and then tell the government what they want.
Then the US government dutifully becomes lackeys to industry, and advances a position which gives industry ridiculous things which could never be negotiated in public.
During this, they insist on secrecy so that the citizens of none of the countries can know that they're being heavily undermined to advance the interests of US businesses.
Lather, rise, repeat.
The US government isn't just advancing the interests of multinational corporations, they're advancing them to the detriment of the citizens -- which means nobody benefits from these fucking things other than corporations.
Welcome to the global fucking oligarchy. Make no mistake about it, the US government are nothing more than industry shills.
Fuck you, America.
This is mainly a way for tax money to flow into the pockets of people who are already very rich.
Foreign companies are treated very well, governments want the extra jobs.
Why do foreign companies need more/better rights than nationals?
Defenders will say this is false, but it's what TTIP will lead to, like what other similar trade agreements have lead to.
Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
This has been SOP for years.
The US government is now acting as a foreign policy arm for multinational corporations, and doing secret negotiations so nobody knows just how badly we're being fucked over for our corporate overlords.
This is the worst form of capitalism, one in which all consideration is for corporations who have the government on the payroll, and in which the citizens of the countries get fucked over.
America has been allowing corporations to write the trade treaties for a long time. Because America is essentially a corrupt shell beholden to corporations.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
One small consolation is now some in the USA feel what it was like to be a poor South American or South Asian or African whose government was totally controlled by foreign companies.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Please read your own link better: It says " it will grant the authority to decide and negotiate the terms of agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to the executive branch," "...critical to successfully negotiating its terms internationally", etc. Duh. That's what we're talking about here. It's being negotiated in secret. It will not become some sort of "secret law". Once it's done, the full text will be released and congress will have to vote on it, just like all treaties.
"99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
> As for the secrecy, unfortunately, this is generally how complex international treaties are negotiated [...]
No.
In a democracy, *I want my representative to know what's in the negotiations*, *I want to read about the content in the newspapers*.
I don't need to take part in said negotiations, but I want to have an informed opinion on what is being negotiated on my behalf. *I want my representative to have an informed opinion* when it comes to the up/down vote.
Everything else is anti-democratic.
This is how most bills are written. That is not a cynical but rather purely factual statement.
And you're okay with that? The point isn't that it is unusual, the point is that it is anti-democratic and contrary to the interests of the general population.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
Of course not, they should have a seat or two at the table. But the rest of the table should be filled with Constitutional scholars, citizens rights groups, economists, etc. This is a little like pcreating an fossil fuel emissions/pollution policy solely based on the opinion of oil/coal/natural gas companies, of course they're going to create a policy that is highly advantageous to them but screws everyone else over. All effected parties consumers, regulators and companies need to be included in such discussions, not just those who have connections or throw "campaign financing" (see bribes) to the right people.
The new low is that the actual text of the bill is being kept under lock and key.
The text of the bill is not secret, because there is no bill. There are only preliminary drafts, that are still under negotiation. When/if a final agreement is reached, it will be submitted to congress for approval, and will not be secret.
Yes, that's true. Usually it will pan out like this. A 3000 page bill is presented to the House. Some Urgent! reason is invented for a fast track through the house before it can be properly evaluated and they pass it. You HAVE to read it to understand what it is then you have to analyze it for what it will do. It is a lot of work but it has to be done.
Politician don't take people seriously if they don't get letters making sure the politicians know what you expect of them and that it will cost them votes if they force is on people. Apathy is and always has been the enemy of western political stability and even Franklin himself said of the constitution 'for all its flaws' IIRC would not protect the US from slipping into despotism. The TPP sure looks like pretty good way to start a slide.
People died to earn the rights we have now and its sad to see people just pissing them away as if they are nothing because people don't understand how to use them, how they came to be or why they're important. You can't blame people because it was achieved by carefully de-educating the population and aggregating the sources of news into a few manageable mega-outlets.
The audacity of these people to chase the very legal core of all western nations makes me wonder where your morals must be to participate in such an activity, which is really just a robbery of rights for capital. That's not Capitalism any more, it's Corporatism dressed in its finest deceptive cowardice come to steal the common good and make it a slave, for life.
Will we get any protection from this domestic enemy? No - you'll be labelled as it.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.