The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
and the TTIP and the TISA
  

Just say NoInternational corporate capitalism is a vampire which has long sucked the blood of whatever countries it could sink its fangs into. It began with European colonization of Asia and Latin America, and continued with the British exploitation of India and China. The U.S., once the most productive country in the world, has been gutted by offshoring its manufacturing and jobs to cheap-labor countries — with U.S. service-workers paying for imports (but not much longer when they have no jobs). The TransPacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) — for the EU — are the last, desperate attempts to grab what wealth can be extracted from those countries stupid enough to sign up to them (and the EU's European Parliament is certainly stupid enough — and also treacherous enough). For the Pacific countries, however, it is not too late to "Just say No".

Update 2016-11-12: Thanks to Donald Trump's election as US President the TTP and the TTIP are now practically dead!

Update 2019-01-28: Why Did the United States Withdraw from TPP?

The TransPacific Partnership (TPP)
The most troubling aspect of the TPP is the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision, which [gives foreign firms a special right to apply to a secretive tribunal of highly paid corporate lawyers for compensation whenever the government passes a law ... that negatively impacts corporate profits] ...

The threat is not idle. In 2012, the U.S.’s Occidental Petroleum received an ISDS settlement of $2.3 billion from the government of Ecuador because of that country’s apparently legal termination of an oil-concession contract. Currently, the Swedish nuclear-power utility Vattenfall is suing the German government for $4.7 billion in compensation, following Germany’s phase-out of nuclear plants in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster.

The ISDS provisions of the TPP are insidious: the means by which signatory nations voluntarily surrender national sovereignty to the authority of corporate tribunals, without appeal, and apparently without exit provisions. No wonder the negotiations are secret.

[The] Trans-Pacific Partnership is a Trojan horse. It’s a coup by multinational corporations who want global subservience to their agenda.

A comment (by 'tacoma') on the Michael Snyder article:

The Trans-Pacific Partnership has one over-riding agenda, but it is hidden and secretive.

This is an American strategy to form an economic circle against China. An economic containment, to complement its military containment. A Cold War on China. Which is why China, certainly a major Pacific power, is not part of it.

Hidden within the details is also a strategy. It is to push American-style corporatism and maximum profit machine into the TPP partner countries. This way U.S. multinationals will reap huge profits from them, in exchange for [which] they keep using the U.S. dollar for trade in a manner that’s almost free, thanks to special treatment from Wall Street banks. The goal is maximization of corporate profits, minimization of labor, helping maintain U.S. dollar hegemony.

Why the U.S. government came up with this TPP is understandable. Why other TPP countries even agreed to negotiate for it might not. Here’s my take:

Canada, Mexico — both being NAFTA members, they have no choice but to do what the U.S. wants. Else they will see retaliations. But Canada is getting cold feet because its people is kept in the dark and don’t like the terms as leaked out.
Australia — It is completely dependent on U.S. arms for defense. Walk away from TPP and they will be left with no weapons. But Australia is also benefiting much from the China trade. So they have to walk a very fine line.
Brunei — Too small to have any consequence. Just a head count.
Chile — Chile says why not, but let’s see what can come out. It has little trade with China.
Japan — A vassal state of the U.S., and being afraid of a powerful China, Japan naturally joins in American containment of China.
Malaysia — Its posture is the same as Chile.
New Zealand — NZ sits at the table simply because Australia does. But it is likely it will walk away.
Peru — A poor state, it figures anything is better than nothing. It is ready for American corporate maximum exploitation.
Singapore — Singapore, you guessed it, earns big bucks by having a U.S. naval base.
Vietnam — This is the only state I don’t understand because it still hates America like no other. It is more like a natural enemy than ally. The only reason I can think of is it fears China's intentions in the disputed islands off its coast, and wants the U.S. navy to offer some protection. But it is deluding itself.

Relevant reading:

On 2015-10-05 the TPP was agreed upon by all eleven countries (or rather by the US 'negotiators' and by the paid flunkies who run the other countries), and must now be ratified by them.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

The Trade In Services Agreement (TISA)

From WikiLeaks:

Update 2016-11-12:

Thanks to Donald Trump's election as US President the TTP and the TTIP are now practically dead!

Update 2019-01-28:

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