3 replies to this topic

[duke_Qa]

http://www.huffingto...ml?ref=politics

I sure didn't, and it certainly is relevant for us westerners(mostly). It stands for "Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement", and is basically a bunch of pacific nations organizing free trade agreements between themselves.

(TPP) is being negotiated as a nine country FTA between the U.S., Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Canada, Japan and Mexico are all expected to join talks, and many see more Pacific Rim countries including China and Russia eventually signing on. With floundering WTO talks, the TPP could very well establish U.S. trade policy for the next generation, yet all talks are happening behind closed doors and public influence has been increasingly suppressed.

The problem isn't that they are going about creating trade agreements, but that they are being as opaque as humanly possible about it. These sort of agreements make or break nations, and here we sit not knowing anything about them.

Here are some examples what this TPP is about(probably some good things about it too, but one step forward and two back is usually negative):

Secret No. 1: The TPP is covertly attacking the same internet freedom rights that spurred online protests over ACTA and SOPA.
No. 2: The TPP would make it more enticing for corporations to offshore jobs by opening our market to Vietnamese labor, which has significantly lower average wages than China.
No. 3: The TPP could be a death sentence to patients with AIDS, tuberculosis, and other treatable diseases around the world.
No. 4: The TPP would ban capital controls and impose limits on financial regulation, including post-recession checks on firm size and risky investments.
No. 5: Americans hate FTAs! Recent polls have found more than twice as many Americans think FTAs hurt than help, and 69 percent of Americans think they cost jobs, which they do.

I'm glad we are living in times where you can find this sort of information online. If I wrote about this sort of stuff in the 70s I'd probably be put on a list and hear clicking sounds on my phone. Safety in numbers and ease of access I guess

Edited by duke_Qa, 05 May 2012 - 02:28 PM.

[Soul]

Well shit, what do we do now?

[Pasidon]

Westerner? You're a little too far east to be a westerner. I guess it's like people who live north of the wall calling people from Winterfell southerners.

But yea... I can't believe you didn't know about this. It may be a more well known thing for Americans since we're like nuts about importing junk. I mainly know about it because the GMC plants around my parts are in a constant panic about the agreement, while Crysler employees seem to be anticipating it. Supposedly TPP is good for me. But certain aspects one may find... cringe worthy... but apparently some companies have already made great deals from the agreement.

[duke_Qa]

Whatever influences the American economy and business "culture" drips over the pond, if I've made a nanometer difference in the way this situation evolves by bringing it up, then my work has been done

Free trade agreement deals usually mean someone gets the short straw somewhere. Of course you could say that it helps those nations who are worse for wear to begin with. But if its nothing but another 1% plan to make more money by outsourcing jobs and getting their hands on cheap, unorganized labor; then it should meet resistance.

Good to hear that those that are directly affected by it are aware of this then. Car factory workers and the likes should be very scared, their competence can relatively easily be taught to any schmuck in a poor asian country, for a single-digit percentage of their wage and with twice the work-ethic... If you can call fighting for your existence as a quasi-slave "work-ethic".

Well shit, what do we do now?

Dunno, dance a little knowledge-dance and feel better than your fellow citizen I guess. Maybe spread the word if you feel charitable and make a point out of it. You can go beyond that, it's more work and higher risk, but you'll most likely die feeling more content about your meagre existence for it

Edited by duke_Qa, 05 May 2012 - 08:55 PM.