TPP looks after the big end of town, but ignores people and the environment

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ustralia’s decision to sign up to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) appears to be about looking after the big end of town.

Details of the agreement are scant and all that has been divulged to this point from the secretive, but massively important discussions is trickle of positive news about the benefits the agreement will bring.

TPP boosters argue that if the deal is good for Australia’s corporations, it is good for most everyone because of the trickle down factor.

With the money flowing in at the top, it is contended, it will trickle down to enrichen all levels of society – that’s a flawed argument with history clearly illustrating that under the present economic regime it rarely trickles down and it is always the rich who get richer and the rest simply struggle along.

The TPP was written it seems to primarily enrich the legal fraternity as almost any decision from that of sovereign decisions made by countries about protecting their lifestyles and their environments to individuals preserving personal sovereignty, can with ease become a source of litigation.

The rapacious wants of the world’s corporations, which they have embedded in the world community, have played a key role in the worsening of climate change.

Should countries determine that certain legislation was required to protect their environment, legislation that might slow or stop a corporation’s profit endeavours then it is within the bounds of the TPP for the affected corporation to take legal action against that country.

It’s another instance in which profit has been given precedence over people.

One who is not sure about the TPP is Michael West who has written about this mysterious agreement in The Age - “TPP: 'She's a beauty, mate!' Really?”

-       Robert McLean.

Clandestine approch to Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) should concern libertarians

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hat little is publicly known about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) should be of immediate concern for those in the world with libertarian views.

Also, those of us concerned for the state of the world’s environment should be pressing for immediate disclosure of what the agreement really means and how its implementation will impact on the world’s resources and so its environment.

At bottom, the TPP appears to be unashamedly about profit; profit for the world’s corporations ahead of the vastly more important wellbeing of people, wherever they might be.

The TPP is not about the transparency that libertarians love, rather the secrecy upon which profits depend.

Alternet has argued that everything from increased fracking to tainted fish, the TPP could severely threaten environmental and climate policy.

The story - “5 Ways the Trans-Pacific Partnership Could Ruin the Environment” – gives us five reasons why we need to view the TPP with suspicion.