It is fair to say that the information, leaked about the Trans-Pacific Partnership and discussed in the video clip below, mirrors the terms, which are currently being negotiated in secret, for the EU-US Free Trade Agreement (also known as TAFTA or TTIP). Both deals are being fast-tracked by the Obama and UK governments – the push is for implementation by the end of 2014.
Simply put, these Trade Agreements will remove all the bits of legislation aimed at protecting ordinary people and the environment. In free-trade-speak, these protections are known as ‘barriers to trade’… and that says it all.
The Top Secret Trade Deal starts at about 13 minutes, after a harrowing preview of ‘Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars.
The Top Secret Trade Deal You Need to Know About
Bill Moyers discusses the Trans-Pacific Partnership with journalist Yves Smith and economist Dean Baker, then a preview of filmmaker Robert Greenwald’s new documentary Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars. Also a Bill Moyers essay on Obamacare’s rocky rollout.
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The EU is the one free bastion in a mad world that might one day stand up to the right wing establishment of the USA, who have been ( in my opinion), largely responsible for much of the misery of mankind in the last two centuries.
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I cannot agree. Whilst the MEPs and the European Parliament are democratically elected, the real power lies with the unelected commissioners and the Council who are fanatically free trade/neoliberal ideologues. The imposition of technocrats in Greece and Italy said it all. Once the EU might have been a bulwark against the New American century and the Washington Consensus but no more.
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To which part of the statement do you disagree?
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Disagree that ‘The EU is the one free bastion in a mad world that might one day stand up to the right wing establishment of the USA’. Agree that ‘the USA, who have been ( in my opinion), largely responsible for much of the misery of mankind in the last two centuries.’ Happy Christmas!
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I bow to your knowledge. It is after all only my opinion. But based on 67 years of age and keeping abreast of current affairs. It is hard to be precise about who instigates what in world events, what with covert ops, carried out by god knows who, with scant regard for life of anybody’s citizens! I just think that the richest people in the world are bankers, some of whom are Jewish bankers. We all know where they reside and on which side of the fence they plough their furrows. We cannot control Americans with our politics ( neither can the Americans it seems), but we have a modicum of control over the EU parliament in that we elect our MEPs. Woth the American economy teetering on the edge so to speak, a simple solution to their economic problems would be to cause a war with a foreign power(s) , which would boost their manufacturing output, solve employment etcetc. Seems cynical , but looking back , it does seem just a little that world events have been manipulated thus, in the past, and could be done so in the future!
Merry Christmas. No hard feelings, I enjoy being ‘enlightened’. It is a privilege!
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No hard feelings indeed 🙂 Neither the EU Parliament or the sovereign governments of Greece and Italy had the power to stop ex-Goldman Sachs technocrats being imposed when the troika didn’t want a referendum in Greece or Berlusconi’s policies in Italy. The Cypriots have seen their bank deposits seized; there is 62% youth unemployment in Greece, 50+% in Spain … I could go on .. none of this austerity is necessary. It is the result of neoliberal/neofeudal ideology.
In a sense, it is simplistic to blame the Americans because the global elite have become stateless. They certainly have no national loyalty but it is telling that the combined wealth of the 400 richest Americans exceeds the combined wealth of the poorest 50% of Americans.
The real hope lies in the peoples of the EU, the UK and the US, standing up and refusing to take anymore of the austerity policies which are just a blind for privatisation programmes. Neoliberalism and democracy are incompatible and contradictory.
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Thank you (Kerri?), I like my arguments, and other peoples to be factual, succinct and truthful. Yours are just that.
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The EU has many good points. Not least , monitoring our food supply, and banning a lot of American garbage that the FDA allows the US citizens to consume ( True Activist 080114).
However, my jury is out on the EU, until everything has been made totally transparent, with regards to the benefits and costs of membership.
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