Free Republic

WikiLeaks releases today the “Investment Chapter” from the secret negotiations of the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) agreement. The document adds to the previous WikiLeaks publications of the chapters for Intellectual Property Rights (November 2013) and the Environment (January 2014). The TPP Investment Chapter, published today, is dated 20 January 2015. The document is classified and supposed to be kept secret for four years after the entry into force of the TPP agreement or, if no agreement is reached, for four years from the close of the negotiations. Julian Assange, WikiLeaks editor said: “The TPP has developed in secret an unaccountable supranational...

In the 1970s, we had 535 secretaries of state as Congress insisted on usurping presidential power in foreign affairs. It didn't work. Now it looks like we're gonna have 535 trade negotiators. This won't work either. This week, the Senate added the Dayton-Craig amendment to a bill that would have given the White House greater negotiating authority on international trade. But what this amendment does is allow individual members of Congress to veto specific provisions of any presidentially negotiated trade pact. Say good-bye to fast-track trade-promotion authority for the White House. This is a big backslide on trade for...