Later this month, Congress will consider whether or not to hand Fast Track authority over to the President, limiting themselves to a simple up or down vote on two extraordinarily complex trade agreements now being negotiated in secret and without Congressional oversight.
Trade agreements affect a huge range of laws and programs that govern how our economies work, how we grow and sell food, and who benefits—or loses. These trade agreements could set new rules that would:
Affect standards on food safety, pesticides, GMOs and patents on seeds;
Undermine local food efforts such as farm to school; and
Eliminate programs that require food or energy to come from local sources, or benefit local businesses.
The new free trade agreements are the biggest ever—the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with 11 Pacific nations and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with Europe. Once in place, free trade agreements often supersede state, local and even federal laws.
Let’s face it, these trade deals are negotiated on behalf of multinational corporations—not farmers, workers or consumers. Fundamentally, these trade agreements are about making it easier for corporations to shift production to where it’s cheapest, while undermining local economies and food systems. They could even grant corporations new rights to sue governments directly if their future profits are threatened. No wonder the negotiations are in secret!
*** Maps used for this video are from the Wikimedia Commons and include countries who have announced interest in joining and potential future members of the TPP. The delineation is by color.
Maps are used under the GNU Free Documentation License and the certification that the copyright holder of the work, has released this work into the public domain. ****
