Disastrous TPP being pushed to wrap up by mid September
Paola Casale
The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is not dead. Even though talks
failed last month in Hawaii and the 12 countries couldn’t come to an
agreement, the last few legislative days left are being used up wisely.
Canada’s chief negotiator, Kirsten Hillman, visited the U.S. capital
last Thursday to push forward the TPP and try to finish it up by
mid-September. We shouldn’t only be concerned over the TPP, but two
other similar yet even larger and more secretive deals known as the
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade in
Services Agreement (TISA).
Why are they bad? Well if you ask Belgium who has approved a process
of drawing up a motion demanding an end to the TTIP negotiations, or New
Zealand who has a group of people filing a lawsuit against the Trade
Minister of their country over the secrecy behind the TPP, or Australia
who is seriously considering walking away from the deal; they will all
say its disastrous for the world.
How will they affect America directly? We have physical proof of the
damage similar trade agreements did to us. For example, the North
American Free Trade Agreement has been nothing but a disaster for the
U.S. Just by taking a look at the auto industry, we see how thousands,
if not millions, of auto jobs have been shipped down south.
The Motor City, Detroit, was one of the most affected cities. Detroit
was once a manufacturing giant. It was the 4th largest city in the U.S.
with a high employment rate and endless blue collar job opportunities.
Now it is the 18th largest city, in bankruptcy and no hope of recovery
is in sight.
Just how did NAFTA cause such a disaster? Well when you compare our
wages to Mexican wages, you can see just why companies would rather
close up shop here and move there. Chrysler pays its workers $48 per hour when all benefits and profit sharing are included. GM and Ford pay between $57 and $58 per hour. In Mexico, these car companies pay an average of $8 an hour including wages and benefits.
