Global Times | November 27, 2011 17:59
By Travis McArthur and Todd Tucker |
|
Now
that the high-profile Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in
Honolulu has pushed the Trans -Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) to
the forefront of trade policy discussions, a close examination of its
likely consequences is in order.
Though the Trans-Pacific deal has been described as a "trade" agreement,
at its heart it is not about the flow of goods between countries or
tariff reduction. In reality, the deal is a way to hand more power to
multinational corporations at the expense of the rights of citizens and
governments.
For example, this month TPP negotiators announced that the agreement
would allow foreign corporations to sue national and sub-national
governments for compensation if government action infringes upon
corporations' expected profits. Under similar provisions in previous
trade deals, multinational corporations have used foreign tribunals to
attack health and environmental policy, zoning and permitting issues,
toxics regulation, court rulings, and more.
This extraordinary investor protection mechanism is just one way that
the TPP will handcuff governments and enhance the profits of
corporations. Recently, a draft of the US proposal for medicines and
medical devices was leaked from the secret trade talks.
The proposal would lead to higher medicine prices and less access to
healthcare for ordinary people along the Pacific Rim though
inappropriate patent enforcement and the prohibition of
government-sponsored measures hold down prices. It envisions the
elimination of safeguards against patent abuse and would grant
additional exclusive controls over clinical trial data and favor the
giant pharmaceutical corporations' monopoly interests at every stage.
Some observers have hypothesized that the TPP is a way for the US
government to consolidate its power in the Pacific Rim and lock China
out of economic opportunities. Their analysis is incomplete. The
completion of the deal will not shift power between governments, but
rather will transfer power from governments and citizens to
multinational corporations, who know no national loyalty.
From the beginning, the nascent Trans-Pacific trade deal has sought to
chip away at the global resistance to the corporate economic model. In
its first term, the George W. Bush administration confronted fairly
unified developing country opposition to their proposals to utilize the
WTO and Free Trade Area of the Americas to greatly expand the corporate
agenda. They authored a trade policy approach called "competitive
liberalization." The strategy was to seek out a "coalition of the
willing" to sign bilateral trade agreements in order to isolate
countries like Brazil, Russia, China, and India that were opposing these
other initiatives.
Though he pledged to oppose the Bush trade policy when he was a
presidential candidate, Obama is now pushing the TPP. This deal is in
part an effort to put pressure on countries throughout the Pacific Rim
to eschew national development policies and regionalism among countries
of similar development.
Despite efforts to conceal the true nature of the TPP, the corporate
power grab embodied by the deal has not gone unnoticed. Opposition to
these types of trade deals has been widespread in the Trans-Pacific
countries. For instance, indigenous groups in Peru succeeded in blocking
the worst of the implementation of the US-Peru trade deal when they
blockaded highways for weeks in 2009. Australia stood firm when
corporations tried to slip more investor rights into the US-Australia
deal. Most recently, tens of thousands of Japanese farmers have marched
against Japan joining the Trans-Pacific talks.
This fervor of citizen opposition to corporate trade deals shows that
implementation of TPP would go against the interests of popular
majorities in all countries involved. The US and all Pacific nations
should instead seek a high road trade strategy to ensure the development
of all of our countries.
The article was compiled by Global
Times reporter Wang Wenwen, based on an interview with Travis McArthur
and Todd Tucker, researchers with Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, a
division of the US-based advocacy group Public Citizen that monitors
the WTO and other trade agreements. wangwenwen@globaltimes.com.cn
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