You are right - it’s the trade deal that’s the problem.
BUT...
we can’t see it AND tpa would allow the trade deal thru without inspection and only an up or down vote... i do not trust these weasels and nobody does hence the outcry. Say whatever about 60 days but I do not believe them, not one bit. And what recourse is there should they fail to make public the deal?
it should be 2/3 of the senate that approves treaties... which some say this is... but we don’t know b/c they won’t show us.
They’re trying to go too fast. Like TARP. Gotta do it now, Now, NOW!!!
to cool everyone’s jets we need to slow it down and show the public the deal.
they have really screwed up lying to us so much that we refuse to believe them.
we cant see it AND tpa would allow the trade deal thru without inspection and only an up or down vote... i do not trust these weasels and nobody does hence the outcry. Say whatever about 60 days but I do not believe them, not one bit. And what recourse is there should they fail to make public the deal?
Totally false. Probably the most-repeated myth right now isnt even related to TPA but instead to the TPP, which is still being negotiated. According to the anti-TPA script, the TPP is so secret that nobody knows whats in it, andmuch like Obamacare legislationnobody, not even Congress, will know whats in it until the agreement is passed into law. Once again, however, nothing could be further from the truth:
- First, Obamas USTR and Congress have been consulting on the TPP since December 14, 2009, when then-USTR Kirk notified Congress that President Obama intended to enter into TPP negotiations. USTR then held initial consultations with Congress in 2010 and, according to a January 2015 fact-sheet, has since held almost 1,700 congressional briefings on TPP alone. USTR also previewed various TPP proposals with key congressional committees before taking them to our trading partners. (Odd that the TPP talks have been going on for six years, but the vast majority of these secrecy complaints have only emerged in the last few months, huh?)
- Second, USTR has provided access to the full negotiating texts for any Member of Congress, including for Members to view at their convenience in the Capitol, accompanied by staff members with appropriate security clearance. This access began in 2012, and several House members and senatorsboth supportive of TPA (like Mike Lee) and opposed (like Sens. Jeff Sessions and Elizabeth Warren, as well as Rep. Rosa DeLauro)have reviewed the draft negotiating texts. Moreover, the level of security surrounding these TPP texts isnt part of some scary Obama administration plot; its set by Congress (which, as youll recall, is controlled by Republicans these days). A U.S. government official confirmed to me that the Senate and House security offices determine the procedures for viewing classified material in the Capitol reading room where the TPP text is kept for Members—not the administration
some people claim that its more difficult to view military or intelligence information, but its all subject to the same rules that are set and enforced by Capitol security.”
- Third, USTR has engaged the public on the TPP via published reports and stakeholder meetings with groups like labor unions, consumer groups, and, of course, corporations and trade associations. Some of these stakeholders have even reviewed the negotiating texts and US proposals. Admittedly, the official texts arent available to the general public, but this is common practice for all FTAs (as a quick Google search reveals) and for good reason: just like other high-value negotiations among private parties or governments, revealing draft proposals before a deal is struck emboldens the opposition, undermines the parties negotiating positions, and exposes negotiators to public scrutiny over provisions that might not even be in a final deal. Publishing draft FTA texts would make completing a deal difficult, if not impossible, and its thus no coincidence the most vocal advocates for full transparency in free trade negotiations are actually those most opposed to free trade.Its also important to understand just how unoriginal this secrecy canard is:
Yes, protectionists have been using the same secrecy lines for over 20 years. In fact, if you replaced NAFTA with TPP in those old Ross Perot commercials, theyd be almost indistinguishable from the ones on our TVs today.
- Finally, unlike the oft-analogized Obamacare legislation, the actual text of any final TPP deal will be required by law to be publicly available (online) for monthsyes, monthsbefore Congress votes on it. As you can see from the table below (source), under TPA the president must make the entire text of any trade agreement, including TPP, available to the public for 60 days before he can even sign it.Once its signed, Congress will have weeks, maybe months, to scour the deal, hold mock markups in various committees, and suggest changes to the agreement before the president sends Congress legislation implementing the FTA for a final vote. Also, within 105 days of the FTAs signing, the U.S. International Trade Commission must issue a report on the deals economic impactagain prior those bills being submitted to Congress. And once the bills finally are submitted, Congress will then have up to 90 legislative days (which is like five months in normal human days) to review the bills and hold final votes.
Bottom line: when or if TPA is passed, the general public will have monthsand if the presidential elections interfere, maybe yearsto review the TPP before Congress acts on it. Think thats crazy? Well, its precisely what happened to U.S. FTAs with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, which were signed by President Bush but sat around (online) for years before they were submitted to, and passed by, Congress in 2011.