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Showing Original Post only (View all)Nation: "The Democratic Party’s Draft Platform Doesn’t Oppose TPP—That’s Bad Policy and Bad Politics [View all]
The Democratic Partys Draft Platform Doesnt Oppose the TPPThats Bad Policy and Bad PoliticsWorking-class Americans have had enough of trade policies that accelerate the race to the bottom.
By Larry Cohen * June 26, 2016 * The Nation
In a Friday night showdown at the Democratic Party platform-drafting committee, the Clinton majority outvoted the Sanders delegates 10-5, rejecting any language specifically opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Instead, the majority substituted generic language that trade deals should protect workers rights and the environment, and a misleading sentence that claimed that Democrats are divided on trade. A year ago, 85 percent of House Democrats voted against a fast track on the TPP.
Both Presidents Clinton and Obama have maintained that their deals, from NAFTA to the TPP, had better language on the environment and workers rights than any previous trade agreement. The issue, of course, is that not a single agreement has provided anything meaningful for workers or preventing climate change or protecting consumers. The language may be better, but it is virtually unenforceable, especially compared to the reparations multinational corporations receive through their right to sue in private tribunals known as investor-state dispute settlement.
Last fall, as Bernie Sanders made opposition to the TPP one of the major issues in the campaign, Hillary Clinton switched her position to opposing the TPP. When Clinton was secretary of state, she and her staff played a major role in outlining an agreement and picking new trade partnersVietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore. Foreign-policy arguments, then and now, were at the center of the pro-TPP argument. Both Obama and Clinton argued that a trade deal would move those four nations closer to the United States and away from China.
Most importantly, once adopted, the TPP can never be reversed or amended without the agreement of all 12 nations.
President Obama continues to lead with this foreign-policy argument as he prepares to send the TPP to Congress for a lame-duck vote after the election. Amazingly, despite opposition from virtually every environmental, consumer, immigrant-rights, and labor organization, the president has made it clear that he will do everything possible to pass the TPP, with the support of Republicans in Congress. Now, Clinton Democrats are preparing to make passing the TPP even easier, despite the net loss of jobs and the permanent harm to the environment that will almost certainly result from it. Most importantly, once adopted, the TPP can never be reversed or amended without the agreement of all 12 nations.
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-democrats-draft-platform-doesnt-oppose-tpp-thats-bad-policy-and-bad-politics/
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Nation: "The Democratic Party’s Draft Platform Doesn’t Oppose TPP—That’s Bad Policy and Bad Politics [View all]
99th_Monkey
Jun 2016
OP
Yes, the Democratic Party platform committee was going to take a swipe at the president of the US
TwilightZone
Jun 2016
#1
The policy is HORRIBLE for America. It wasn't supported by the House Democrats at all. Obama
think
Jun 2016
#2
Again 190 Republican voted for it. Only 28 Democrats. The unions hate it as do envirnmentalists
think
Jun 2016
#20
I'll stick with the Nobel prize winning economist over your blind squirrel references thank you.....
think
Jun 2016
#24
I'll stick with my president over an economist with an extremist anti-trade agenda. eom
MohRokTah
Jun 2016
#25
Is calling a Nobel prize winning economist policy positions extremist suppose to impress people?
think
Jun 2016
#27
Going to through the UN under the bus too? U.N.’s Legal Expert Calls Proposed Trade Deals Illegal
AntiBank
Jun 2016
#45
It is nice to see critical thinking instead of blind support for what authority puts before one.nt
Mojorabbit
Jun 2016
#31
Correct, TPP is just another mega disaster Hafta trade deal as the evidence
appalachiablue
Jun 2016
#59
This agreement may be no better. The polls show that Democrats think that it is, while
pampango
Jun 2016
#40
190 Republicans in the House voted for it. Only 28 Democrats in the House voted for it
arcane1
Jun 2016
#53
This may or may not open your eyes to the problems with this and previous trade agreements
ciaobaby
Jun 2016
#26
So then how many times in the past 50 years have the issue of trade deals been part of either
cstanleytech
Jun 2016
#29
The Nation is quite right. So are economists Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Reich.
PatrickforO
Jun 2016
#30
It's not very important to me that silence about a treaty might seem to be bad policy.
Tal Vez
Jun 2016
#32
She'll support it, and half its opponents will pretend they loved it all along n/t
arcane1
Jun 2016
#52