Tornado Alley (PROG)

[arizona1]

It seems to me that EVERY trade deal is a TERRIBLE deal! I don't see how it benefits ANY worker in this country. ALL the unions are against it.

A few comments from your first link......the comments are really insightful and super interesting.
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“This really is a deal that’s being negotiated by corporations for corporations and any benefit it provides to the bulk of the population of this country will be purely incidental.”

Dean Baker from an interview with Baker and Yves Smith by Bill Moyers.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/bill-moyers-corporate-plot-obama-and-cor...

Come on, Professor Krugman, it's not as if there isn't any information out there...a little searching...

"Previous leaks are consistent with the Wikileaks leak – enhanced corporate power that puts profits before the needs of the people and the protection of the planet."

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/15/the-people-can-defeat-the-trans-p...

More out there...
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Amogin and all the other commentators describe the problem correctly.

TPP isn't a free trade agreement. It's a "multinational corporation protection" agreement.

It involves lengthening copyrights forcibly -- this should give you a hint as to the fact that it's not a trade agreement.

It involves allowing corporations to get "compensation" if they don't like the laws of the country they're in -- based on spurious claims that they might have made more money if the environmental regulations had been looser.

It's fundamentally anti-democratic, and pro-corporate-rule. It's a very big deal. Your mistake was assuming it was a "trade agreement". It isn't.
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Only a few provisions of the more than 30 included in the TPP deal with matters of trade, quotas, imports etc. The rest are dedicated to protecting multinational corporations. There are provisions allowing corporations to sue for "potential" lost profits if a country enacts environmental laws. The loss doesn't have to be real, just possible. Drug and medical device companies will be allowed to extend patents indefinitely, patent medical procedures and plant based medicines which will surely eliminate any price pressure exercised by the generic market. Countries will be required to import food and drugs from member countries who may not have adequate procedures to insure safety. If a citizen is injured by any of the products governed by TPP, they will have to sue in an extra-judicial court made up of industry representatives rather than suing in their own courts. Internet censorship will be strengthened with member nations allowed to restrict access as they see fit. It will also reward companies who out -source jobs abroad.

TPP may not be a big deal as far as the balance of payments is concerned but for those effected by the provisions favoring the multi-national corporation over any country's citizens. TPP is a very big deal. This treaty must not be fast- tracked until everyone has had a chance to learn of its provisions.
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Allowing companies to sue states whose environmental regulations might cause the corporation to lose profits, for those profits is a pretty big deal to environmentalists. This is especially true when there is no conceivable way the corporation can factually prove how much profit will be lost. Allowing phamaceutical companies to extend patents on drugs forever, is a big deal, especially to senior citizens who will be deprived of genetic drugs. Allowing these companies to patent medical procedures and plant based medicines will also have a rather large effect on prices. Forming extrajudicial courts to adjudicate matters arising from the treaty is a very big deal if you are injured by a product made by a multinational corporation and cannot sue them where you live. Turning jurisdiction over to extra-judicial courts is a direct blow to U. S. sovereignty/ Requiring countries to import food and medicines from member countries who do not have the same safety requirements or inspections, can turn into a very, very bid deal if such food causes another e coli outbreak and the cause can't be determined.