“Trade agreements like the TPP and NAFTA, on the other hand, leave these decisions not up to individual citizens, but to government regulators and negotiators who make decisions in the interest of the state and its favored special interests.”
And the underlying “secret” parts of these so-called “free trade” agreements have almost nothing to do with trade of any kind at all, but rather they drive some hidden political agenda that most of us wouldn’t allow if we were informed. I think Assange (Wikileaks) says that only 5 of the 29 parts of TPP have anything to do with trade policy. You can bet that immigration and gun control are woven into this “deal.”
And who makes these decisions prior to such agreements being made?
We need trade agreements - we don’t need SECRET trade agreements
A real “free trade” agreement would require only one sentence:
“Any and all national legal barriers to trade implemented by a member country may be duplicated by any other member country in its dealings with that country, until such time as those barriers have been removed.”
The end.