American people being left out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership

There is a draconian trade deal being negotiated between the United States and 11 Pacific Rim Nations, kept secret from the public, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

More than 500 corporate trade advisers have access to the text of the agreement, which is being written by corporate attorneys or corporate executives. Left out of the one-sided process are consumers, working people, democratic and faith groups, and labor.

We the people have no voice.

The deal has been in the process for more than five years (in secret). The deal has 29 chapters, but only five cover trade, and one chapter, the investment chapter, has been leaked to the press. It includes the Investor-State Dispute Settlement clauses, which would allow foreign corporations to sue the United States government for actions that undermine the corporations investment and hurt their business.

Corporations, business and investors would be able to challenge regulations, rules, government actions and court rulings of federal, state and local governments. But instead of going through the U.S. court system, they would go before tribunals organized under the World Bank. These tribunals will be made up of corporate attorneys, who will be the judges, paid by corporations.

If a state were to pass a minimum wage or a paid sick leave law, then the tribunals could rule that the laws hurt the corporations’ profits and the laws would be null and void. The corporations will become more powerful than the United States of America. Who do you think the tribunals will rule in favor of?

So why are the details of this deal secret? Because, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren says, “Supporters of the deal say to me, ‘They have to be secret, because if the American people knew what was actually in them, they would be opposed.’ ” WHAT?

The corporate free traders want fast-track authorization of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This would enable Congress to ignore its constitutional duty to regulate international trade. Instead of discussing, debating, scrutinizing and improving the deal, lawmakers will simply vote yea or nay on the package presented, ignoring the effects on their constituents. This is not representative government.

The promises and projections of the proponents of previous deals, such as NAFTA, CAFTA and KORUS, remain unfulfilled. In fact, those trade agreements dramatically increased the trade deficit, promoted U.S. corporations to move to foreign countries, costing Americans their jobs and suppressing their wages. For example, After KORUS the U.S. trade deficit with Korea grew by 84 percent, which translates into nearly 85,000 U.S. jobs lost.

The corporate free-trade hucksters are again promising lots of new jobs. They are not fooling everybody — the Washington Post fact-checker gave this promise its highest liar-liar-liar-pants-on-fire rating of four Pinocchios.

We do not need these corporate free-trade deals. Let’s pull out of all free-trade agreements and mandate that all purchases made with U.S. taxpayer dollars be spent on goods and services provided by American workers employed by U.S. incorporated businesses on American soil. No exceptions.

Charge an import tax on goods made overseas that compete with domestic manufactures. If there is a dollar’s worth of labor in a pair of shoes manufactured in the United States, and you can make the same pair of shoes with 20 cents worth of labor in China, then we are going to charge an 80-cent tariff when those shoes are imported into the United States. We need to protect domestic industries and jobs.

John Maynard Keynes, the British economist, believed in the private sector but also in a strong government role, especially during dire economic straits. Keynes understood that demand from consumers drives an economy. So during a cyclical depression, the best response of government is to use government money to put people to work so they have money to buy things. This is how we got out of the Great Depression.

When working people have a job, they have money to buy goods and services, which will grow the gross domestic product and tax revenues. Government would then have money to pay back borrowed money and wean people off of government jobs as private industry picks up the load.

We need to improve our roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, sewer and water systems, and build wind, solar and other innovative energy systems. We have lots to do that will create jobs. Let’s get started.

Brosten is a resident of Bigfork.