President Barack Obama criticized Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) stance against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), reported The Huffington Post.
“She’s wrong on this,” said Obama. “When you hear folks make a lot of suggestions about how bad this trade deal is, when you dig into the facts, they are wrong.”
The TPP is an international trade deal that has been secretly negotiated between government officials and corporate executives. The trade deal has oft been called “NAFTA on steroids” and would be a bad deal for all the countries involved if the deal passes.
The TPP stands to perpetuate income inequality and would give multinational corporations a type of sovereign status while operating in different countries. For instance, if a company wishes to set up an international operation in another country, the company could sue the hosting country if there are environmental, financial, or other laws that could threaten the company’s profits.
As Ring of Fire has reported:
The TPP benefits Wall Street banks and undermines regulations that are paramount to economic and consumer protections. The trade deal nullifies transaction taxes designed to combat financial speculators. It would destroy the firewall between consumer banking and investment banking and block the Glass-Steagall firewall from reinstatement. American financial regulation could potentially be all but dismantled, as the TPP reinforces “too-big-to-fail.”
Corporations are guaranteed sweetheart deals regarding labor outsourcing. The TPP limits the cost and risk associated with U.S. factory relocations to low-wage countries. If the corporation’s plans violate any foreign public interest laws, it can sue foreign governments by way of an international tribunal. The company can also demand compensation from foreign governments over policies that it believes would disrupt their projected profits. This right is reciprocal.
Foreign investors and corporations can sidestep American laws and sue the U.S. government if they felt that our laws undermined their projected profits. Essentially, taxpayer money would be syphoned to pay for an unnecessary reason. Recent statistics illustrate that such suits between companies and foreign countries is increasing. Altogether, since 1999, investor attacks on international governments increased 460 percent. Governments have awarded corporations about $365 million with $13 billion in compensation pending.
Obama said digging into the facts would reveal that the TPP isn’t bad. However, people have been digging and found the opposite. Wikileaks published the provisions of the TPP, and anyone can read them here. There is pro-corporate language throughout the draft.
The TPP isn’t a labor deal meant to empower the middle class; it’s a shady deal that only favors multinational corporations.
