What is TPP and Fast Track and what can we do to stop them? We are EFF, Sierra Club, AFL-CIO, and Public Citizen—ask us anything! : IAmA
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is a massive trade agreement
that's being negotiated in secret by 12 countries across the Pacific. It
has 29 chapters covering all kinds of regulations, and we only know
what's in it based on outdated leaks and misleading government
statements. But based upon what has been revealed, we know that there
are serious threats to the environment, public health, the free and open
Internet, financial regulation, middle-class wages, workplace rights,
and to democracy itself.
Now, hundreds of organizations across the United States are fighting a bill called Fast Track (officially the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015).
If this legislation passes, lawmakers would shirk their constitutional
authority over trade policy, letting the White House and the U.S. Trade
Representative write binding TPP rules in secretive, corporate dominated
meetings. If this passes, the president would be empowered to sign the
TPP before lawmakers got a vote. Congress then would only have a
small window of time to conduct hearings over the done deal and give a
yea-or-nay vote, without any ability to amend the TPP before binding the
United States to its broad terms.
So we're a diverse group of public interest organizations here today
to answer your questions about everything TPP—the secretive negotiating
process, our analysis of the provisions, and how the leaked chapters
show that this agreement is a wish list for big corporations but a
threat to nearly everyone else.
