Soon, U.S. negotiators will be working behind closed doors in Singapore on a massive agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It’s being sold as a “free trade” agreement, but actually TPP would give new rights to corporations that are not in the interests of the American people, such as offshoring jobs, and importing foods that do not meet American safety standards. It would even ban buy-American procurement policies that reinvest our tax dollars locally to create jobs here.
Eleven countries are involved in the secret talks, and it’s open for more to join. It would expose the U.S. to corporate attacks before foreign tribunals demanding compensation in our tax dollars, simply because foreign firms may not like our laws.
President Obama has called for completion of the TPP by October of this year, yet after three years of negotiations, the public and Congress know almost nothing about what U.S. negotiators are proposing in our names. Will you please cover this story so that the American people become informed about what may be a disastrous policy and can react to it?
George Veronis
New Haven