Quote:
Originally Posted by geotag277
I have already provided several links to Bloomberg, Economist, and PRI. I also explicitly said that to get news from a single source is paramount to the opposite of education.
The fact you ignored the links, ignored my post, ignored my advice to not single source your information, well, it speaks volumes.
Enjoy your "intelligent" discussion and "education" of us poor ignorant Canadians who don't know anything.
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Wow, you are quick to jump into conclusion! Isn't it pretty obvious that I had missed your first message in the first inflow of replies? Why else would I claim that you have not provided any sources for your comment, when you clearly did?
Unfortunately in your later replies you resulted into bashing others from your high horse, rather than continuing the intelligent discussion you already started. It was also nothing but an
assumption on your side that I would only be reading a single news source, yet you made strong claims on it.
Anyways, I did read the four links you provided and they drill extremely little to the real content and problems of TPP. Those articles are written completely from American perspective and the main content seems to be describing the American political circus around this plan. That's irrelevant to us as it doesn't represent this deal from Canadian perspective, which should be our concern and focus of the discussion on this particular forum.
You and me are not in disagreement on the importance of a purely free trade agreement that you describe in your first post. Very few object such, as it brings benefits to the general economy. However the real concerns are in the details of this deal and the special clauses that would result in less government regulation power and sovereignity.
To me big corcerns around TPP are the following things:
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Wide investor protection that gives companies the right to sue governments for something as ridiculous as
loss of potential future profits in case governemtn would put new environment laws in place. This goes completely against the common sense where such is the cost and risk of doing business.
Why this is extra worrysome is that at least in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade talks between the US and EU (discussions are still ongoing), it is said that these
legal cases would not be fought in federal courts but in special "international courts" that would be outside of any national legal system and would be appointed by some instance we don't know about. There is a heavy risk of bias towards corporate interests, knowing how much lobbying power companies can have in courts.
- It is okay to keep some secrecy when negotiating, but the concerning thing here is that public (Canadian MPs included) don't know know who is representing them in these discussions and who else is participating? What we know is that there are lobbyists, think tanks and stakeholders from big businesses at least very close to these discussions, but we don't know anything about their influence on issues that first and foremost affect nations. These are not supposed to be discussions between corporations, but countries, but
who is representing who and with what mandate?
In my home country our national news agency (which is still extremely trustworthy and unbiased) it was told that in the very similar TTIP discussions there is only
one single participant from my home country and he was not even any elected official. I really dislike that some unknown individuals represent a country in discussions behind closed doors. Who is to say what kind of agenda such people are having and driving? There HAS TO BE national parlamentary discussion before any agreements are signed.
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Expanding patent rights and how long patents are in effect. For example in case of TTIP one big discussion topic has been the US requiring EU to open its food markets to American food corporations and their patented gene-manipulated seed crops. This can easily be a very slippery slope that has some very bad examples in some third world countries and even among American farmers.
This is just and example what could or could not be on the discussion list, as we don't know due to the secrecy. The leaked information indicates that at least some medical patents are discussion to be extended, which is in no way in public interest when it means that cheaper generic medicine cannot enter market.
The core problem with all of these details is that many things are NOT in the best interest of general public. But there is a huge interest and opportunity for big corporations and that tends benefit only very few individuals at the top. One of the articles that you linked claimed that TPP would "make America and world richer", but how equally would this new wealth be distributed? We all know what the trend in last decades has been with very few reaping the most wealth.
Some food for thought. But one thing is certain, that
people should read about this topic and make up their own mind instead of having others tell them what this all means. World and and TPP is not black-or-white and there is both good and bad in here. It is just my personal opinion that this direction is not desirable and I am certainly not alone.