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TPP Text Finally Released … It’s Even Worse Than We Thought
As we’ve noted in hundreds of articles, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a horrible pact which would destroy everything that America stands for. And see this, this, this and this.
The full text of the TPP was finally released today after years of secrecy … and it’s even worse than we thought.
One of America’s top TPP experts – Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch – said:
Apparently, the TPP’s proponents resorted to such extreme secrecy during negotiations because the text shows TPP would offshore more American jobs, lower our wages, flood us with unsafe imported food and expose our laws to attack in foreign tribunals.
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From leaks, we knew quite a bit about the agreement, but in chapter after chapter the final text is worse than we expected with the demands of the 500 official U.S. trade advisers representing corporate interests satisfied to the detriment of the public interest.
Common Dreams explains how TPP would reduce our food safety:
With its provisions that tie the hands of food inspectors at international borders and give more power to biotechnology firms, “the TPP is a giveaway to big agribusiness and food companies,” said Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch executive director. Such corporate entities, she said, want to use trade deals like the TPP “to attack sensible food safety rules, weaken the inspection of imported food, and block efforts to strengthen U.S. food safety standards.”
Last month, the Center for Food Safety outlined the top five reasons “eaters should be worried about Obama’s new trade deal.” At the top of the list was the TPP’s ability to undermine efforts to label GMO foods. “More broadly,” the Center wrote in October, “any U.S. food safety rules on labeling, pesticides, or additives that [are] higher than international standards could be subject to challenge as ‘illegal trade barriers’.”
Indeed, according to Food & Water Watch, the final text released Thursday indicates that under a TPP regime, “agribusiness and biotech seed companies can now more easily use trade rules to challenge countries that ban GMO imports, test for GMO contamination, do not promptly approve new GMO crops or even require GMO labeling.”
“The TPP food safety and labeling provisions are worse than expected and bad news for American consumers and farmers,” said Hauter. “Congress must reject this raw deal that handcuffs food safety inspectors and exposes everyone to a rising tide of unsafe imported food.”
And Tech Crunch notes that TPP could dramatically reduce our privacy.
TPP Text Finally Released … It’s Even Worse Than We Thought was originally published on Washington's Blog
Source: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/11/tpp-text-finally-released-its-even-worse-than-we-thought.html
