The trade agreements are a major part of the neoliberal agenda. Here we have a record of the Obama Administration pushing " free trade."
Negotiators Reach Deal on
TPP Oct.5, 2015.
Obama Administration
negotiators have reached a agreement with other nations on TPP. Negotiators announced an "agreement in
principle" for something called the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP),
meaning it will soon move to Congress for approval.
By Paul Garver
Throughout the spring, liberal Democrats and some Tea Party
Republicans, aided by a coalition of labor, environmental, and progressive
groups, joined forces against a massive corporate power grab known as “Fast
Track” Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) only to see it narrowly pass the House
by a 218-208 vote in early June. TPA and the accompanying Trade Adjustment
Assistance (TAA) bills were signed into law by President Barack Obama on June
29.
Polls show that a majority of American voters oppose “trade deals”
that endanger workers’ jobs and environmental regulations. But the political
game is rigged. Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority, which allows U.S. trade
representatives to negotiate agreements in secret (retroactively in the TPP
case), is not really about “free trade.” Such authority would cement the
current inequitable structure of the global economy by enacting three sweeping
investor protection treaties (Trans Pacific Partnership [TPP], Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership [TTIP], and the Trade in Services Agreement
[TISA]). Together these treaties would make it almost impossible for any
political authority in any nation to enforce serious protections for workers,
communities, or the environment.
