Thanks for all the info on TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership]. Question? Hasn’t this been happening between all the countries for the last 10 yrs? Most business headquarters are already moved out of the USA for tax purposes and banking as well. Americans who understand banking and investing, not just businesses, have moved their money of shore for years now. Is the TPP just making that public for the rest of us folks who work for pay by the hour etc.? Is it making the general accepted practice of moving money and making money through various businesses legal? I have friends in Madison for instance who were making motorcycle parts in their basements and went to China to set up a business with some guys and a new lathe to make the parts. Is that a tiny example of the planet shrinking? Could you start from scratch for the economically impaired? And thank you again for this great newsletter.
- Pat Kane
Editor’s Reply:
Hey, Pat:
Thanks for the kind words.
We are featuring a story from Bill Moyers in the Saturday DC that gives a good overview and explanation of how the TPP is diffferent in many important respects from past supposed “fair” trade deals (most of which have actually been disasterous). The article is entitled: What Is “Fast Track” And Why We Must Stop It, Cold.
The secrecy surrounding this deal is really frightening. There are 29 “chapters” — or sections — of the TPP. Of those 5 deal with trade. The rest? Well, nobody really knows. We do know that the contents of two of the chapters won’t even be revealed until four years after signing takes place.
The NAFTA deal was signed Dec. 19, 1993. That one trade deal was responsible for 60,000-plius factories - not jobs, factories being literally unbolted and sent off to places like China and Vietnam. Well over a million jobs followed those factories and wages and benefits for the jobs that stayed here have stalled out. The minimum wage is lower than it was 50 years ago. If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation it would be $17/hour instead of the $7-and-change that it is now. Those lost jobs have created an artificial scarcity of jobs that have kept wages down and sent corporate profits soaring.
As bad as NAFTA was, TPP is far worse and will acclerate the dismantling of the American manufacturing sector. Public policy and legislation should not be done in the dark. That alone is reason to oppose TPP. But keep in mind the deal has been knitted together in secret by 600 corporate lawyers and lobbyists and, if passed, our laws and environmental, safety, labor, even local zoning laws can be overturned by a secret tribunal of corporate lawyers with no appeal possible.
We have an extensive and growing archive of TPP articles you can check out at: http://www.thedailycall.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for reading and writing.
Mark L. Taylor
