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ObamaTrade Details Unveiled, Officials Warn "It's Worse Than We Thought"
"The Trans-Pacific Partnership means that America will write the rules for 21st century trade," according to President Obama, but as Reuters reports, U.S. unions, lawmakers and interest groups questioned the long-awaited text of a landmark U.S.-backed Pacific trade deal on Thursday. "It's worse than we thought,” Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, told members and U.S. labor representatives said the agreement contained weak, poorly worded or unenforceable provisions, concluding "we do not believe those improvements are significant or meaningful for workers." It appears, that ObamaTrade may be a boon for factory and export economies like Malaysia and Vietnam, but - as expected - will achieve little for the average joe in America.
President Barack Obama, who championed the deal, will have to muster support among moderates in Washington to ensure ratification. "The TPP means that America will write the rules of the road in the 21st century," Obama said in post online. "If we don't pass this agreement - if America doesn’t write those rules - then countries like China will." As Reuters reports,
U.S. unions, lawmakers and interest groups questioned the long-awaited text of a landmark U.S.-backed Pacific trade deal on Thursday, setting up a potentially long and difficult path to ratification by the United States, the biggest of the 12 partners.
Arguments over the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, aimed at freeing up commerce in 40 percent of the world's economy, are set to focus on transparency and how the pact affects workers and businesses.
"It's worse than we thought,” Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, told reporters on a conference call after examining the full text of the pact, which was unveiled early on Thursday.
U.S. labor representatives said the agreement contained weak, poorly worded or unenforceable provisions.
"There are improvements, but we do not believe those improvements are significant or meaningful for workers,” Celeste Drake, trade and globalization policy specialist at the AFL-CIO, said on the same call.
Details include...
Japan has pledged to ease trade barriers on imported french fries and butter, which have been in short supply in the Asian market, while Malaysia will eliminate tariffs on all imported alcohol for the first time in a trade agreement.
Other firsts cited by the partners - Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam - include a prohibition on subsidies to harmful fisheries as well as commitments to discourage imports of goods produced by forced labor and to adopt laws on acceptable working conditions.
Malaysia will have to implement reforms to combat human trafficking, and Vietnam will have to allow independent labor unions before they can reap benefits of the pact.
But the deal does not include measures demanded by some U.S. lawmakers to punish currency manipulation with trade sanctions, disappointing carmaker Ford Motor Co, although members pledged not to deliberately weaken their currencies.
The TPP would be a boon for factory and export economies like Malaysia and Vietnam. Anticipated tariff perks are already luring record foreign investment into Vietnamese manufacturing, and both countries are expected to see increased demand for their key exports, including palm oil, rubber, electronics, seafood and textiles.
That could put pressure on several of Asia's major developing economies, including the Philippines and Indonesia, which have recently expressed interest in signing up to the pact.. Thailand said it was studying the deal and might consider joining.
* * *
Of course, there is one big winner - as we detailed previously - Big Pharma...
The sprawling deal would affect a variety of issues, including tariffs, labor rights, and international investment. But the deal's most controversial provisions are the ones limiting competition in the pharmaceutical industry. According to Doctors Without Borders, "The TPP will still go down in history as the worst trade agreement for access to medicines in developing countries."
Though the final text of the agreement won't be available for at least another month, here's what we know so far.
The TPP will drive up costs for some of the most expensive drugs on the market in the poorest countries
One of the biggest sticking points in the negotiations had to do with data protection for biologic drugs.
Biologics are treatments made from biological sources, including vaccines, anti-toxins, proteins, and monoclonal antibodies for everything from Ebola to cancer. As the Brookings Institution explains, biologics are much more structurally complex than regular "small-molecule drugs" and are therefore more difficult and expensive to make, costing on average 22 times more than nonbiologic drugs.
Because of the high prices of these drugs, companies are very interested in developing "biosimilars" - cheaper copies of the original drugs, similar to generic versions of pharmaceuticals. The reason these biosimilars are so cheap is that manufacturers can usually just rely on data from clinical trials submitted by the maker of the original biologic. But, of course, the maker of the original drug doesn't want everyone using its data and making cheap knockoffs.
So in the United States, there are really protective rules around this: Any maker of a biologic gets 12 years of data exclusivity. The FDA can't approve a similar drug that relies on the original data during this time. (Theoretically, other companies could conduct their own trials to create a biosimilar, but because this is so expensive, it defeats the point.) By contrast, in other countries, there are looser rules - or no rules - around such data exclusivity. Japan offers eight years, for instance. Brunei offers zero.
As part of the TPP, the United States (and the pharmaceutical lobby) had been pushing to get every country to agree on 12 years of data protection for biologics. The final agreement falls somewhere in between, with a period of data exclusivity from at least five to eight years, according to the New York Times.
This means the agreement will prevent more affordable biosimilars from entering the market for a longer period of time in places that previously had no bar to entry.
* * *
The earliest the TPP could come before Congress is March, just as the U.S. presidential primary season is heating up, creating the risk that the deal becomes a campaign issue. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman warned that trying to reopen the complex deal could unravel the whole package... which may not be a bad thing after all.
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Maybe 200 million Seppos will be out of work after this deal.
Good thing Dear Leader Obama is flooding the country with illegal workers. Someone has to (illegally) take those lower and lower paying jobs.
Of course the TPP is worse than we thought! If it was objectively good for the average American, it would have been openly published and debated, instead of declared secret, with disclosure deemed a criminal act!
With 51% of Americans earning less than $30,000 per year, we are well on the way to becoming a banana republic, without the bananas.
Why do I feel like a baby harp seal just flopping about on the ice?
pods
we do not believe those improvements are significant or meaningful for workers.
Whewww, that's a relief. I thought they might sell us down the river AGAIN. I guess there's nothing nothing left to take except the dried out husk.
Unfortunately, they want the dried out husk now too.
The dried husks are necessary for the shit tamales they want to force you to eat.
Obama will not finish his second term! Banned independent documentary reveals the truth. This will scare millions! Current Events Linked to Ancient Biblical Prophecy!
http://tinyurl.com/pktwp86
Please stop that.
Actually I have bananas. Not sure how I feel about that relative to this though. Guess I should just be happy for the bananas.
The ONLY part that makes or breaks everything, is what Currency will be used for the international trade.
Got KING DOLLAR? The King is dead. Long live the New King!
Not falling for all the other side-shows and distractions. The Currency is EVERYTHING.
If the BRICS don't go to a Gold Standard now, they are either Incompetent or Divided/Compromised. In which case, even the Syrian Light & Sound Show is just that: a BF Show.
Sheeeeiiiiittttt, dood! We were officially a Banana Republic after the coup of 1963! (And that's not even including the follow-up assassinations of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sen. Bobby Kennedy!)
There are ONLY 7 books to read and absorb to fully understand what has been transpiring:
(1) The Devil's Chessboard, by David Talbot
(2) Rockefellerocracy, by Richard James Desocio
(3) The Bubble and Beyond, by Michael Hudson
(4) Killing the Host, by Michael Hudson
(5) Treasure Islands, by Nicholas Shaxson
(6) Extreme Money, by Satyajit Das
(7) Web of Debt, by Ellen Brown
(Just 7 books, that's all, just 7!)
Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins
For pleasure
we're the only thing keeping 40mm mexicans out of your formerly prosperous oil patch...careful what you wish for.
40mm Mexicans? Small little fuckers.
Are they used to inspect the inside of the drill string?
I double dog guarantee you Obummer does not even know what is in TPP...or care
Hmm, puppets usually have heads made from wood or are stuffed with sawdust...
It isn't worse that I thought...pretty much everything Obama and Washington does is about what I would expect. Lower your expectations!
Like the NAFTA, it will do nothing for Americans, except lower the standard of living to the lowest common denominator world wide.
Any media disection of the TPP will be all unicorns and fairy dust.
Reality will be soup kitchens becoming a luxury outing for the family in the good 'ole USA.
Yup. Giant sucking sound coming right up. And what can't be sucked out will be overrun by illegal immigrants.
Insallah infidel.
As opposed to a rising tide raising all ships I believe the plan of globalization all along is to "equalize" the tide - for the working class, that is. One can be sure there elite will suffer no detrimental consequences to their standard of living as a result of globalization.
Hunger Games. I'm in the banana district, how about you?
Appalachia on the Prairie here...
Dupe
This is David Rockefeller's wet dream come true, all those years of putting out OPM finally paying off for the RockDevils!
Now, how many Americans realize that the descendant of John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie is named . . .
Andrew Carnegie Rockefeller
???
Since 1971, a massive destructuction of the dollar has been occuring and, because of reserve status, fueling a massive 30+ year trade imbalance...
The choices are;
1) The EM and Europe magically recover.
2) The dollar is crushed even more, so those petro-dollars can keep flowing....
3) global Debt Jubilee. (LOL)
or
4) World War.
And. the survey says.... #4. Ding ding ding.
2-4
#1 can't happen as their printing press has been just as egregious, and their banking leverage even higher.
We live in a world run by criminals and predators. They have nothing to offer the rest of us.
I predict a Variation of #1: The usage of the USD as the Reserve Currency, that's baked into TPP and TPIP, will make its coupling to oil irrelevant.
All the CB's in the Agreements will simply swim in unison, like Olympic Synchronized Swimmers. Given their combined GDP's (real or fake), the total GPD of the BRICS won't matter.
The Chinks lost against the Anglos on Procedure, once again. Cause they just don't get "Sometimes victory goes to the swift" (Outflanking, speed, surprise). And all their Mandarin navel gazing won't matter. Good luck feeding 1.3B when the trade lines slow down, for all sorts of technical and BS reasons.
Gold-backed currency now, or China is finished.
No modern government could switch to a coin with any real value. Catch 22.
And a new system of formal Rule put forth--without substantive MSM notice--in the now publicly-released TPP text:
http://tpp.mfat.govt.nz/text
http://media.photobucket.com/user/slowdip/media/old%20west%20photos/john...[term]=old%20west%20hanging&filters[primary]=images&filters[secondary]=videos&sort=1&o=23
Without comment, other than to say without comment.
History will show this to be the crock star admin.
I didn't know Azians liked french fries!
Freedom fries!
Trade agreements between "governments" are like any other agreements between "governments". The State agrees to impose rules, duties, taxes, restrictions, and limit the freedom of the "citizens" they dominate, on behalf of the foreign government.
How this has been completely obscured and spun as a positive to millions of people is a testament to the effectiveness of State propaganda.
Bend over, America. You're going to like this. :-(
Of course big pharma makes out like a bandit - this is part of the payback for promoting Obamacare. You know who else I guarantee makes out well at the expense of the general public, despite me having no clue what's in the agreement? Hollywood. Because that's how Obama rolls. He only cares about political patronage and his own image.
Goldman Sachs also threw a fair amount of money into the TTP. I'm a afraid to ask what they will get in return.
It saddens me that President Obama is pushing this horrible free trade bill down our throats. He was elected to bring our jobs our jobs back, not continue outsourcing more jobs.
There is so much toxic stuff buried in this free trade bill. Basically you can say goodbye to net neutrality and freedom of speech.
I would advise all of you to call your congressman and senators and tell them you are against this monstrosity !
And put a twenty in the envelope.
It's for the line of coke you'd have to put in there...
They're politicians... you know it's not all about the money
I can imagine you just forgot the sarc tag.
I don't know anybody who voted for Obama so he could bring our jobs back. Everyone who voted for him wanted free shit that I HAVE TO PAY FOR.
this part:
I would advise all of you to call your congressman and senators and tell them you are against this monstrosity !
You are JOKING with us, right???
I mean, have you checked out those jackholes in congress lately?
Like who isn't either related to the Bush family or the Rockefeller family or the Morgan family???
Geez!
We have John Forbes Winthrop Dudley Kerry in as SecState. (Of course the TPP favors the biopharmaceuticals, mainly owned by the Rockefeller family, and since John Kerry's great-grandfather made the Forbes fortune by being the biggest drug dealer on the planet --- opium to China from Francis Blackwell Forbes) what would anyone of considered otherwise?)
We have Bill Dudley in as chair of the FBRNY.
We have somebody's wayward pet Jack Russell Terrier with a NYC accent in as hed of the FED.
I mean, WTF!
Jesus H. on a Harley, but the zombie sheeple will never awaken!
[Remember, every trade presentative over the past 20 years, and especially the top ones involved with the TPP, were on Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission --- there are no coincidences!.]
There is so much toxic stuff buried in this free trade bill.
Genuine free trade does not need a bill. Just remove all of the bureaucratic trade bullshit; i.e. tarrifs, quotas, subsidies, protectionism, etc.
The TPP trade agreenment has nothing to do with FREE trade.
These administration people at all levels think they're the best and brightest.
They worked on this TPP for so long just to get consensus and support from each signatory and thus hated to have the whole agreement torn apart with public debate by us not-so-bright taxpayers who have to suffer the folly of their cranial rectal infarction.
Heck, we may not even agree that giving other countries new Mercedes for their old shoes might not be in our best economic interests despite Professor Krugmans best advice.
.
Well, ZH hates the United States and loves everything Russian. So if ZH is coming out agains the TPP, it means that Russia doesn't want to the US to have the deal.
ZH hates the globalist scum and their little puppet politicians!
What a retarded koolaider yomutti
NWO?
Whe great sucking sound continues.
You'll have to wait and see what kinds of speech will now land you in jail... to see what's in it.
That measure was not added, right?
Should be no suprise that this is bad for the US.
There has not been an international pact in the last 60 years that was not explicitly designed to economically and socially destroy the US.
Literally since 1950.
"Most transparent administration eva!!!!! 4-realz!"
You DARE slam Obama's Open Government Initiative?
Arrest that man and ship him to Gitmo, now!!!!!
Wait! Wait! Don't board!
It's a cookbook for dried out husks!
Free trade = deflationary. And they know this. So what's their plan for the US economy? It can't be pretty?
My guess is complete capture. "They" control your money, how much you can spend, what you can spend it on, and punish you for spending it incorrectly.
Hence the recent rumblings about cashless societies.
Corporate consolidation of everything from the food supply to manufacturing to banking.
All of them in huge debt.
Negative interest rates and a ban on cash (coming soon).
In the end they will crash the system and consolidate ownership of EVERYTHING under a single entity to which EVERYONE will be beholden.
Consolidatiion, consolidation, consolidation and the taxpayers pay for it all, profitable or not.
They can try. =)
I agree, they'll be largely successful. But they'll instantly make a nation of tax dodgers as it'll probably drive entire industries/sectors into the black market.
Yup, Jethro has their endgame down pat!
Blockchain technology, anyone?????
Why do we continually put up with this shit? Its unreal, this will destroy the US as we know it. Get ready they are going to open the flood gates and everything the American people have worked for is going to get SUCKED OUT because we have unbelievable greedy ignorant shitheads in charge of this country. ???? Its just disgusting.
if anyone actually thinks all this matters when we are printing QE money to keep the lights on...LOL.people rant about how they hate the fed but somehow think it can go on forever...?
Free trades are everything but free. Free market allows price to freely adjust following supply & demand. Here, it's a set of rules (hence the zillion pages) that stiffen the markets. This is nothing but control.
If inside beltway, elected and non-elected, screw the American people, is that considered copy-write material and thus subject to international tribunals?
U know someone couldn't have PLANNED to wreck the economy worse than O has done with O'Care TPP continuing war, Gitmo gulag, Bankster theft, drug company abuses
So you think this was all by accident? How stupid do you think these multi-national billionaires are?
Time consuming and totally confusing government rules and acts just adds to our misery. NAFTA, DFARS, AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT(ARRA), BUY AMERICA ACT, BUY AMERICAN ACT(multiple versions), AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL ACT(AIS), AMERICAN STEEL ACT, ILLINOIS IRON AND STEEL ACT, PENNSYLVANIA IRON AND STEEL ACT, STEEL PRODUCTS PROCUREMENT ACT, FEDERAL ACQUISTION REGULATIONS(FAR) and it goes on and on. Every single day it’s something new to waste our time on. Worthless no-nothing Bureaucrats are destroying our nations productivity and way of life!
Impeach, impeach, impeach!
Who will impeach him? Ryan? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
And who do you suppose will impeach him? The TPP loving Republicans?
Even in a world with tariffs and near-closed borders, the laws of economics still eventually favor work being done in the lowest labor environment and business formation in the lowest regulatory/tax environment. Reducing or eliminating trade barriers only accelerates the process and the acceleration may lead to change that is too rapid for many parts of an economy to adapt.
Exactly, in otherwords Americans get ready to have the rug pulled out from under you...AGAIN. Im convinced right after this deal is signed the market will tank.. and some weird event will occur and they will try to distract everyone from the robbery that is occuring. They fit the definition of Traitors.
What's wrong with a trade deal? Trade is GOOD.
You people are just ENVIOUS of the RICH. Quit complaining.
Just WORK HARDER and GET AHEAD.
.......... and blindly keep allowing this corrupt crony system to bankrupt our nation, and our liberty.
I believe the phrase is.... "Work will set you free." I saw a sign like that somewhere but it was in German.
Anyone still arguing right/left politics is a moron. Anyone still playing by the "rules" is a fool. Anyone guilty of both is poor.
About 80% of the commentor's on Zero Hedge still see the world through left and right filters.
About 80% of the commentor's on Zero Hedge still see the world through left and right filters.
Unfortunately that is probably true. Fortunately 80% (or 20% who don't fall for the right vs. left paradigm) is better than the +90% of the population that get their information almost exclusively from teevee and continue to see through those same filters
Don't forget that the same interests who control the 90%-media also control K-Street, ultra-wealth "think tanks" (Cato, Heritage, Manhattan, AEI, etc), and most Super PACs. the American Oligarchy is about equally distributed between political party affiliation. For the 0.01%-class, wealth and power always trumps partisan politics. Always.
This country is full of media controlled morons
It will be ratified. The globalist/NWO forces behind it will not be thwarted by mere people's representatives. Oh I forgot....they're not the people's representatives.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power" - Mussolini.
Look at the TPP and Obamacare... and you pinheads still think Obama is a socialist???? There will NEVER be a socialist President, idiots! The Fascists wouldn't allow it.
Fascism = corporatism. Truth.
Eisenhower warned that this would take us down.
We didn't listen.
David Stockman calls today's government "crony fascism"
Eisenhower warned that this would take us down.
Oh, shut the fuck up already about that murderous swine, Eisenhower, who should have been court-martialed after the slaughter of over 100 American women, children and men at the Bonus Marchers Village way back!
The Ikey ordered the slaughter of Iranians because they nationalized their very own oil, and the Guatemalans because his buddy and chief financial backer, Floyd Odlum, was also the chief investor in United Fruit; then the slaughter of the Indonesians for his other backers, the Rockefeller brothers, for their oil companies (Stanvac and Caltex) and mining company there.
Eff Eisenhower and all his spawn.
When he is no longer in office he will be free to embrace his jhad agiainst the USA...
We are always being sold down the river and its always by both parties. Voting is a fools game....
There are more than 2 parties. Take a look closely at the ballot.
And don't tell me voting 3rd party is a waste of a vote. If that's true then voting for Romney last election was a waste of a vote because he lost just as sure as every alternate party candidate.
The TPP will decimate China. If you are manufacturing anything using textiles you will save 15-20% on tariffs by moving to Vietnam or Malaysia.
Do you think any company will still keep their production in China if they can save 20% on duties?
You can't have a service based economy for $1 billion people. The transformation of the US economy to a service based economy has destroyed our middle class and put over 100 million Americans into poverty. China isn't even moving towards a nation filled with Walmarts to employ the majority of their population. The Chinese would rather just buy their goods online. The TPP will cause the majority of factories in China to close, where will the people work?
Winner: Wall Street
Loser: Everyone else
Free trade only comes about as a result of repealing existing laws - not passing new ones.
Individuals do not need to be goaded into acting in their own best interest.
Freedom comes from the barell of a gun
NAFTA put American workers (and by association, the middle class) in the grave. The TPP will fill the hole with dirt and compact it real tight . . . .