[OccupyCU] 62 percent of voters oppose giving President Obama “fast track” authority over the TPP.

[David Johnson via OccupyCU]

It comes as no surprise that the American people are not fooled by these 
irresponsible trade agreements. According to a bipartisan poll ( 
fasttrackpoll.info <http://fasttrackpoll.info/>), 62 percent of voters 
oppose giving President Obama “fast track” authority over the TPP. With 
fast track, Congress would not be allowed to make any changes to the 
deal before it’s signed.


  Trade Agreements Hurt Jobs And Wages

1cwa
Resist! <http://www.popularresistance.org/category/resist/> Food Safety 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/food-safety/>, Labor 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/labor/>, TPP 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/tpp/>, Worker Rights and Jobs 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/worker-rights-and-jobs/>
By Drew Martin and Bill Ebergardt, www.miamiherald.com
September 1st, 2014
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    TransPacific Partnership (TPP) Trade Deal Could Cost Us Jobs, Wages

Each year, Labor Day serves as a reminder of the contributions that 
American workers have made to our country’s strength, prosperity and 
well-being. It falls around the time that members of Congress start to 
return from recess in their districts to Washington, D.C. This Labor 
Day, we want our representatives to get back to work with one thing in 
mind: Their first priority must be to protect Florida’s quality of life, 
including our jobs, wages, communities and environment.

Sadly, members of Congress — and the public they are supposed to 
represent — are being left out of important talks about a trade deal 
that could end up costing us our jobs and wages while jeopardizing our 
clean air and water.

That deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is a massive trade 
pact being negotiated behind closed doors between the United States and 
11 other countries — including Mexico, Canada, Japan and Vietnam.

Trade can be a good thing if done responsibly. But what we know from a 
history of failed free-trade pacts, and from what we’ve seen in leaked 
chapters of the trade text, the TPP will lead us in the wrong direction 
by off-shoring our jobs, eroding our wages, gutting environmental and 
consumer protections, and increasing our exposure to unsafe food.

We already know that so-called “free” trade agreements aren’t free — 
they hurt jobs and wages and are deeply irresponsible. Indeed, just two 
past “free” trade deals, NAFTA and China’s addition to the World Trade 
Organization, resulted in a net loss of almost 135,000 Florida jobs. In 
addition, when — and if — those workers got another job, their annual 
wages plummeted an average $13,500. That net loss cost Florida’s economy 
almost $2 billion in annual wages. The TPP will make things even worse 
because we’ll be competing with corporations relocating to countries 
like Vietnam, where the average minimum wage is a meager 56 cents per hour.

This agreement will allow foreign corporations to sue the United States 
through international tribunals over nearly any laws that they allege 
would cut into their expected future profits. That includes laws 
designed to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food 
on our dinner tables. Florida’s taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay the tab 
to defend American laws against foreign corporations using secret court 
systems.

And it gets worse. A number of groups, including AARP and Consumers 
Union, wrote a letter stating that the TPP would lead to higher 
prescription drug prices, placing important Medicare and Medicaid 
programs at risk. The higher drug prices are the product of language in 
the TPP that extends the patent monopolies held by big drug companies.

Even the food you eat is not safe. The FDA has detained hundreds of 
seafood products from TPP countries due to salmonella and E. coli. The 
TPP will further swamp an FDA that is only able to inspect 2 percent of 
seafood imports under current conditions. If the TPP becomes a reality, 
more cheap and tainted food imports are likely to make it to our 
shelves, sinking Florida’s shrimping businesses that provide us with a 
safe and healthy catch.

It comes as no surprise that the American people are not fooled by these 
irresponsible trade agreements. According to a bipartisan poll ( 
fasttrackpoll.info <http://fasttrackpoll.info/>), 62 percent of voters 
oppose giving President Obama “fast track” authority over the TPP. With 
fast track, Congress would not be allowed to make any changes to the 
deal before it’s signed. This is such a bad deal that 43 percent of 
voters — including 68 percent of Republicans, 17 percent of Democrats, 
and 48 percent of Independents — said that they would be less likely to 
vote for a member of Congress who supported fast track.

The legislative fight over the TPP may come to a head during the 
lame-duck session following the November elections, when members are 
expected to introduce a new proposal for fast track.

We hope that each member of the Florida congressional delegation will 
join us in the fight to protect our jobs, wages, environment, food, 
prescription drugs, health and national sovereignty, and show their 
support for responsible trade, by making a public commitment to oppose 
fast tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Drew Martin is the conservation chair of the Sierra Club’s Loxahatchee 
Group. Bill Eberhardt is the Florida legislative-political coordinator 
for the Communications Workers of America.


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