How the Media Misrepresent Obama’s “Fast Track” “Secret” International Trade Deals

[RiverLover]

TPP, TTIP and TISA: How the Media Misrepresent Obama’s “Fast Track” “Secret” International Trade Deals
5/7/2015

Both conservative and liberal ‘news’ media misrepresent U.S. President Barack Obama’s proposed international trade-deals as if they were about only such things as lowering tariffs and reducing national trade-protectionism — which are relatively minor surface-features of these huge proposed treaties: TTIP with Europe, TPP with Asia, and TISA (Trade in Services Agreement). All of these proposed Obama trade-deals are actually about transferring to panels of international corporations the powers that currently reside in the various individual nations’ regulatory and legal authorities — i.e., that reside in the democratic governments that are accountable to the population that elected them instead of to the few global billionaires who control the international corporations.

...For example, if you will google-seach in one-and-the-same search the two phrases together “fast track was passed” “bill was defeated” you will get the following: “No results found for ‘fast track was passed’ ‘bill was defeated’.”

The reason why this is the case is laid out in the book by Public Citizen, The Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority. It explains that Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) was created by President Nixon in order to get around something: to get around the U.S. Constitution’s having placed America’s treaty-making authority in a balance-of-powers framework with Congress, something that the Constitution did in order to prevent the emergence of dictatorship by excessive power in the hands of the federal Executive, the President (which dictatorship was Nixon’s goal to achieve.

Only 16 times since Nixon was in the White House has his Fast-Track TPA been applied, and yet hundreds of free-trade agreements have passed Congress without any need for (or application of) Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority during that time. How and why has this been so, and why does the public not know these crucially important things?

TPA, or “Fast Track,” is the device that is used only when a President wants to ram through Congress a trade-deal that would never be able to pass Congress under the traditional, and fully Constitutional, method, because these are the few trade-deals that have provisions in them that, for the typical member of Congress, would cause him or her to lose the congressional seat if he or she didn’t at least try to get the bill amended before it was passed. In other words: only fascistic, or outrageously pro mega-corporate, trade deals, need TPA in order for them to pass Congress. That’s why Nixon initiated TPA. It works as he intended it would.

In Congress, to vote for TPA is to vote for the trade-deal that’s about to be fast-tracked; and to vote against TPA is to vote against that trade-deal....


http://www.globalresearch.ca/obamas-tpp-and-ttip-how-the-media-misrepresent-fast-track-secret-international-trade-deals/5447839

[djean111]

1. This cannot be said enough - and is contrary to the "oh, this is ALWAYS how this is done" lies -

Only 16 times since Nixon was in the White House has his Fast-Track TPA been applied, and yet hundreds of free-trade agreements have passed Congress without any need for (or application of) Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority during that time. How and why has this been so, and why does the public not know these crucially important things?

TPA, or “Fast Track,” is the device that is used only when a President wants to ram through Congress a trade-deal that would never be able to pass Congress under the traditional, and fully Constitutional, method, because these are the few trade-deals that have provisions in them that, for the typical member of Congress, would cause him or her to lose the congressional seat if he or she didn’t at least try to get the bill amended before it was passed. In other words: only fascistic, or outrageously pro mega-corporate, trade deals, need TPA in order for them to pass Congress. That’s why Nixon initiated TPA. It works as he intended it would.

Fast Track just lets the president ram through corporate deals - this is NOT about countries, it is about corporate rules over countries - and enables Congress to cover its ass at home.

Why not let the few chapters that are actually about trade stand on their own? No, most of the TPP - and TTIP, I believe, judging from the anger in the EU - is about corporate power. It is almost like we are being told that everything - every law, every rule, every regulation - has to do with trade, and, as such, shoud be decided by corporations. That, IMO, is what is being handed to corporations - globally - on a silver platter.

[RiverLover]

3. Exactly.

Well said.

[Fast Walker 52]

23. Yes, and it's extremely disappointing to see Obama promote this so heavily

-- so much more than more popular and good liberal causes.

[Hoyt]

2. Another article critical of ISDS, a dispute mechanism in over 2500 trade agreements since 1959.

The panel of 3 arbiters is not run by corporations. In fact, each side picks one, and agrees on the third. Often they are law professors, not corporate attornies.

Countries agree to the ISDS because it attracts badly needed foreign investment.

Heck, the tribunals are run under UN and WTO auspices.

But, ooooooh, they are so evil.

[djean111]

4. I have found that when people resort to "ooooh", they really have nothing substantive to say.

People in the EU are also protesting about ISDS - do you spend time telling them they are wrong, too - or do you actually think that the same small group of people is just protesting all over the world. IMO, the ISDS is designed to have a tighter grip on everything.

Attracts badly needed foreign investment? Gives away countries to global corporations, is more like it. Makes any sort of law or rule or regulation moot, is more like reality. Takes the gamble out of investing, actually - corporations will make a profit one way or another, now. Profit from fracking, or profit from a settlement because a country does not allow fracking. What a deal!

Most likely all of this back and forth about the TPP is moot, the money has changed hands. All I can do personally is never vote for anyone who supports it. I am puzzled by the doggedness here, as if anyone really needed message boards to be all okay with the TPP. Gloating would be more honest.

[Hoyt]

9. A small percentage of people in Europe are protesting. Heck, there are people

here and there who will protest just about anything.

[ucrdem]

10. Certain NGOs can be very handy in this department. nt

[RiverLover]

11. So many people in Europe have protested the TTIP (50000+), they are having to renegotiate TTIP

to change the ISDS portion of it.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/22/europeans-fight-u-s-trade-deal-with-fear-of-mchospitals-fracking-under-eiffel-tower.html

[djean111]

12. That's a lot of people that those evil NGOs have hoodwinked, right?

Kinda funny, in a way, to see arguments for the TPP/TTIP devolve to attempting to marginalize the opposition and and belittling sources.

[RiverLover]

13. They can't belittle the UN too, can they? Also "hoodwinked" apparently...

UN calls for suspension of TTIP talks over fears of human rights abuses

UN lawyer says tactics used by multinationals in courts outside of public jurisdiction would undermine democracy and law


http://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/may/04/ttip-united-nations-human-right-secret-courts-multinationals

[RiverLover]

5. It gives corporations power over local govts AND not just through the evil ISDS

Dave Johnson~

Leaked documents appear to show that negotiators are writing provisions that will set rules that are binding on Congress and our state legislatures tell us what laws and regulations our own country can pass or enforce in areas like:

intellectual property rights like patents and copyrights,
government procurement like Buy American which would be banned,
investment and land use,
service-sector regulation,
food and product safety,
corporate competition,
labor,
even environmental standards.
Leaks show that TPP even limits government regulation of financial services!

Dean Baker explains that non-trade items like patents in an agreement like TPP can have a huge effect on us by dramatically increasing prices of items like pharmaceuticals, in Political Corruption and the “Free Trade” Racket,

Tariffs and quotas might raise the price of various items by 20 or 30 percent. By contrast, patent and copyright protection is likely to raise the price of protected items 2,000 percent or even 20,000 percent above the free market price. Drugs that would sell for a few dollars per prescription in a free market would sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars when the government gives a drug company a patent monopoly....

http://www.globalresearch.ca/secret-negotiations-the-trans-pacific-partnership-agreement-tpp-a-corporate-takeover/5335348

This is another way the media, owned by the corporations who are writing the TPP, has failed US. This should be front page news.

[Fast Walker 52]

24. exactly

[99Forever]

21. In what alternate reality would ANY fucking "arbitraters" being "chosen" by corporations...

... to overrule the laws elected representatives of We the People NOT be the most undemocratic piece of shit idea ever rammed down our throat?

Are you fucking kidding?

[raouldukelives]

26. Just take the mental quantum leap to Ronald Reaganistan. They tell me its nice there. nt

[Hoyt]

27. Remember. There are two parties --The state and the company.

Arbitration is used all the time.

But the ultimate fact is, countries are happy to sign these agreements with UN, WTO arbitration rules. It attracts trade and investment in their country.

[99Forever]

28. I didn't vote for any "company."

Fuck the WTO and all of it's neocon and neoliberal scumbag grifters.

[Hoyt]

29. Well without well regulated companies, most of us would be living a Great Depression

lifestyle, assuming we were lucky.

[99Forever]

31. Ahh bullshit.

That's biggest crock I've ever read.

[ucrdem]

6. Saw that earlier. GlobalResearch can be good but when it's bad it's very bad.

The all-conspiracy-all-the-time outlook sometimes produces ridiculous conclusions like Dr. Zeuse here:

It’s fine, up to a point, to report what a politician says, but not beyond that point, where the politician is saying things that mislead or even outright lie. Beyond that point, authentic journalism consists only of investigative journalism — such as here.

However, mainly, investigative journalism ignores the biggest scandal of all, which is the corruption that’s rampant in ‘our’ ‘free’ press. This is a news-beat that’s simply too hot to touch. It’s ignored even by both the liberal (fair.org and mediamatters.org) and the conservative (aim.org andmrc.org) media-watchdog organizations. It’s journalism’s orphan, because ‘journalism’ is owned by the aristocracy, and no aristocrats want it to become honest. Aristocrats instead want honest journalists to become fired. Journalists just want to keep their jobs.

If he's trying to claim that the US press is some kind of faithful stenographer of the President's position, on TPP or anything else, he's sadly mistaken.

[RiverLover]

7. Thanks for posting more of the article. I like this bit. So true!

Its so hard to only post a portion of an article when the entire article is spot on & everyone should read.

[ucrdem]

8. De rien but most of it is recycled HuffPo and has been knocking around all year.

The parts where Zeuse isn't quoting his own blog or whatever RINF is. Not exactly top grade material. Ditto Citizen Watch, also generously quoted.

[Fast Walker 52]

25. Er, what? Ridiculous?

That sounds pretty accurate to me.

[Faryn Balyncd]

14. Our media is a disgrace. And has become perhaps our biggest obstacle.

[Demeter]

15. Okay, I'm convinced now. We need a Constitutional Ban on Fast Track

Damn Nixon, anyway! And anyone who follows in his footsteps.

[RiverLover]

17. Yes we do! Representative, checks and balances govt is crushed with TPA.

It's deeply discouraging that that will never happen.

[Demeter]

16. Why Obama Is Wrong and Warren Is Right on Trade Bill Quarrel

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-15/warren-claim-that-trade-bill-could-undermine-dodd-frank-is-right

Elizabeth Warren has warned leery Democrats that a fast-track trade bill could undo U.S. laws such as the Dodd-Frank banking regulations later. A number of constitutional scholars and other legal experts say she’s right. In her quarrel with President Barack Obama over trade legislation, Elizabeth Warren has got the law on her side.

The Massachusetts senator has warned fellow Democrats that a fast-track trade bill now in Congress could undo U.S. laws such as the Dodd-Frank banking regulations later. A number of constitutional scholars and other legal experts say she’s right.

The reason: An arcane trade-bill provision that would make it easier for a future president and Congress to undercut existing statutes, even ones with little to do with trade....

[RiverLover]

18. I'm impressed Bloomberg published this. Thanks for adding it to this thread!

If only our representatives would read it. They're too busy counting the $$$ they'll get if passed for the corporations paying them off to care, I imagine. And republicans are now bragging they have the votes in both the senate & the house to get 'er done.

It's beyond frustrating.

[ucrdem]

19. Businesses don't like regulation. Neither do warmongers.

That accounts for about 99% of the swiftboat crowd.

[woo me with science]

20. K&R

[tridim]

22. The President is smarter than the entire media put together.

So there's that, globalresearch.ca .

[Bluenorthwest]

30. I'm sorry, but I can't take global research seriously as they are very creepy about LGBT issues.

And by creepy I mean exploitative. Not at all surprised to see them cited here.