At the end of the day, what really makes TPP the “21st-century agreement” it’s purported to be? Not much except for scale, it seems. The regulatory focus, the ISDS measures, the rhetoric around the goodness of free trade flying around while the deal knee-caps countries’ efforts to promote public health, local economies, and food security in the name of profit; these are all features of the neoliberal politics of the 80s and 90s, but TPP threatens to take them further. In 2008, then-candidate Obama described his disagreement with NAFTA. “While NAFTA gave broad rights to investors,” he said, “it paid only lip service to the rights of labor and the importance of environmental protection.” Ironically, the TPP negotiations today give corporations far more than “broad rights.” “Having seen what I’ve seen, I would characterize this as a gross abrogation of American sovereignty,” Rep. Alan Grayson told the Huffington Post after finally getting a look at the TPP texts, “And I would further characterize it as a punch in the face to the middle class of America. I think that’s fair to say from what I’ve seen so far. But I’m not allowed to tell you why.” Ultimately, what we see in the TPP isn’t anything futuristic, but a double down on old, bad ideas. The level of secrecy is unprecedented, the power given to corporate advisors and experts is unprecedented, and the work to dismantle local regulation goes further than any deal we’ve seen before. The choice inherent in the notion of a “21st-Century Trade Deal,” is who the 21st century belongs to—will food policy continue to go down the road of 20th-century neoliberalism that never really worked, or will it be decided by consumers and the officials they elected to represent their interests?
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 18:21:55 +0000
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