“The Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement is currently being negotiated between the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, with bilateral discussions also under way for entry by Canada, Japan and Mexico. Unlike many other international negotiations, including even those at the World Trade Organization (WTO), these have been conducted with virtually zero transparency. While the American public is barred from knowing what their representatives are negotiating for and negotiating away, approximately 600 corporate advisors are given regular access to the negotiating texts and negotiators.
Many see a double-standard at work. When public health advocates attempted to hold a luncheon in the hotel to share their expertise with interested negotiators, they even had their room reservation revoked. Activists are angry that these negotiations have been so secretive, and warned that without greater public participation, the Trans-Pacific trade talks could deliver a corporate-backed “NAFTA of the Pacific.”
According to AFL-CIO Trade Policy Specialist Celeste Drake:
Far too many Californians have already had their jobs shipped overseas, and now corporations are crowing that they need to find low-cost labor alternatives to sweatshops in China. We’ve heard talk about ‘labor and environmental’ standards ever since NAFTA, and so far nothing offered has been adequate to protect jobs at home and human rights abroad. President Obama has promised better, but American workers would be more confident if the process were more open. In his State of the Union Address, he promised to bring manufacturing jobs back to America, and we hope he does that.
It’s hard to see the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement as a reasonable way to boost our manufacturing sector, given how similar trade deals have decimated it. NAFTA alone cost the U.S. nearly 700,000 jobs, and since China joined the WTO in 2001, we’ve lost over 6 million manufacturing jobs, or 1 in 3. Americans have caught on, too, with 69% considering FTAs job-killers, according to a recent poll. And they’re starting to voice their concerns.”
