Toilet Paper Pact?
The Australian Government hails ‘giant foundation stone’ for Australia
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was clinched in the US city of Atlanta overnight after days of marathon talks and could influence everything from the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments.
The controversial deal involves Australia, Canada, the United States, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam.
It is expected to face great difficulties getting through a hostile US Congress and is also looking shaky in Canada, which is facing an imminent national election.
The Australian Government also has to convince parliament to back the agreement, Labor is seeking a briefing about the closely held detail of the deal.
The CBC doesn’t see much in the pact for people: Trans-Pacific Partnership unlikely to lower grocery or car costs much.
The BBC isn’t particularly interested.
Bernie Sanders is right. These deals haven’t ever been good for workers or the middle class. This deal should be called the “Full Employment for Vietnam Pact”, because that’s where the lowest wage rates exist.
4 comments
We don’t know much about the text of this treaty… they damned well won’t release it to us, having negotiated it in secret, for no purpose we would see as good for working people I’m sure… but sources of info not directly dependent on American governmental data are so close to nonexistent as to render the TPP a “secret treaty” in every real-world sense. What are they hiding? Damned if I know… but it can’t be good for the citizenry of the nations involved, or they wouldn’t be going to such lengths to hide it.
How dare you question our lords and betters, Steve? Surely you know that our compassionate billionaire overlords love us and want only the best for us, right? The only reason they’re not showing us the agreement is because they know our feeble little peon brains could not possibly comprehend the totality of such brilliance. That’s all. Nothing to do with looting the wealth of nations for their personal benefit. No sir, nosirree, nothing to see here, move along!
– Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Yeah, Steve, because sooner or later something good is going to happen to all of the Mexican farmers and US manufacturing workers who were thrown out of work by NAFTA, just like we were promised … well, at least those who managed to survive…
Actually, I should have called it Toilet Paper Pack because 12 countries are getting rolled by corporations.