Twice as big as the Obamacare legislation, the 5500 page Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) multi-lateral trade agreement will be considered by Congress under so called “fast track provisions re-authorized in anticipation of this trade Hydra. Congress will consider it in a manner permitting no amendments, an up or down vote only — and other “features” that like all manner of omnibus bills loaded with something for everyone, serves to blinder individual congressmen toward approval.
Enough provisions are larded into TPP to entice or intimidate a congressman away from doing the right thing for the country in order to placate a particular industry that sees in TPP only a provision sustaining or improving its situation. Apart from debatable economic concerns and the questionable need for any complicated multi-lateral agreements the essential objection we have to the TPP is the establishment of independent trade tribunals to rule on disputes.
Some may argue that sovereignty is never compromised because the treaty might be abrogated if it “gets too bad”. But by then powerful co-dependencies, bureaucracies, and inertia prevail and practical sovereignty is lost. This article from Steve Guest at Daily Caller explains it ably as it is based especially on Senator Jeff Sessions’ warnings about TPP and his call to remove it from fast track consideration and return to bilateral agreements. Readers might listen to Sessions’ presentation on the floor of the Senate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHJUoTJ3Kzg
Sen. Jeff Sessions blasted the lack of an “enforceable currency mechanism” in the Trans-Pacific Partnership which would lead to “massive job losses” for Americans.
Speaking on the floor of the Senate on Thursday, Sessions said, “No American has the resources to ensure that his or her interests are being protected in this document. It’s so long and the ramifications are so broad that Congress cannot do it’s job to ensure that the peoples interests are safe guarded by such an agreement.” (RELATED: Obama’s Convoluted TPP Agreement Is THREE TIMES AS LONG As The King James Bible [LIST])
Sessions explained, “This agreement is not just about trade…it’s about creating a framework for a transnational union which supersedes the authority of Congress.”
“The TPP is about a goal of creating a new global regulatory structure, what I have called a Pacific Union, transferring power from individual Americans and power from Congress once more, eroding Congress to an unaccountable, unelected international bureaucratic committee,” claimed Sessions.
Because President Obama has been given fast-track powers,” explained Sessions. “Congress cannot amend this deal, strike one offending provision, apply a filibuster to have a supermajority of 60 votes like we have to have for most legislation, or apply the two-thirds treaty vote. Additionally, the White House writes the implementing legislation which, in turn, necessarily supersedes any existing American law.”
Furthermore, Sessions says the American representative to the American Transpacific Partnership Commission will not be accountable to voters.
Sessions said that in Chapter 27 of TPP, “Administration and Institutional Provisions,” there is no mention of the term length of the representative, how they will be chosen, and if there are there any restrictions on lobbying and provisions for transparency.
Moreover, there is “no enforceable currency mechanism” to prevent currency manipulation by other countries which are party to the agreement. The Obama administration has “zero interest in preventing foreign market manipulations and currency manipulations, and thus the TPP will cause massive job losses. It just will,” explained Sessions. (RELATED: Mark Levin: TPP Would ‘Destroy The Constitution’ And Put Us On A ‘Fast Track To Hell’ [AUDIO])
In May 2015, Sessions said that he wrote President Obama asking him if TPP would increase or decrease America’s trade deficit, increase or decrease the number of manufacturing jobs in the America, and how the hourly wages would be affected and Obama has not answered him yet.
“It’s time to take the TPP off the fast-track and “get busy defending the interests of the America people,” Sessions declared
The above is set forth in its entirety with permission of The Daily Caller New Foundation.
