KMO speaks with Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of Citizens Trade Campaign about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Arthur describes as a corporate power-grab disguised as a trade agreement. The Obama administration has kept the specifics of the TPP negotiations a secret from congress and from the public, but 600 corporate “advisors” do have access to and influence over the evolving text of the agreement. While the US Constitution gives congress the authority to regulate trade with other countries, President Obama is seeking Fast Track authority to negotiate the details of the agreement in private so that congress will only have the opportunity to vote yea or nay on the finished product. Will all the secrecy around this trade deal, Arthur Stamoulis says that the biggest secret about the TPP is that mobilizing against it can be successful. Citizen coalitions have beaten back these sorts of power grabs in the past, and we can do it again. Music by Stackabones.
Free Trade for Whom?
By KMO, originally published by C-Realm Podcast
November 25, 2013
Tags: free trade agreements, Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
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