OBAMA SECRETLY NEGOTIATING
AWAY U.S. SOVEREIGNTY
2 Pronged assualt on economy, consumer rights, domestic law
published 13 hours ago
by
2 Pronged assualt on economy, consumer rights, domestic law
published 13 hours ago
by
Aaron Klein About
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Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/obama-secretly-negotiating-away-u-s-sovereignty/#PZ6MYjYD5XwqkdHx.99
AAron Klein
http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/obama-secretly-negotiating-away-u-s-sovereignty/
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http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/obama-secretly-negotiating-away-u-s-sovereignty/
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2-pronged assault on
economy, consumer rights, domestic law
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/obama-secretly-negotiating-away-u-s-sovereignty/#PZ6MYjYD5XwqkdHx.99
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/obama-secretly-negotiating-away-u-s-sovereignty/#PZ6MYjYD5XwqkdHx.99
WND EXCLUSIVE
Obama secretly
negotiating away U.S. sovereignty
2-pronged assault on
economy, consumer rights, domestic law
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/obama-secretly-negotiating-away-u-s-sovereignty/#PZ6MYjYD5XwqkdHx.99
Obama secretly
negotiating away U.S. sovereignty
2-pronged assault on
economy, consumer rights, domestic law
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/obama-secretly-negotiating-away-u-s-sovereignty/#PZ6MYjYD5XwqkdHx.99
Consumer protections and the use of domestic law in the U.S. may
drastically change as President Obama forges ahead with two secretive
international deals that impact major aspects of the economy, privacy and
beyond.
Wednesday, Obama defended a proposed mega free-trade zone between
the world’s two largest economies, the United States and the European Union.
“I have fought my entire political career, and as president, to
strengthen consumer protections. I have no intention of signing legislation
that would weaken those protections,” Obama said during a visit to the EU
headquarters in Brussels.
Obama was responding to criticism of the Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership, or TTIP, which the U.S. has been negotiated with the EU
since last July.
Besides creating the world’s biggest free-trade zone, the TTIP
will also bring about closer cooperation between EU and U.S. regulatory bodies
while more closely integrating the two economies.
One leak about the TTIP revealed a proposed “Regulatory
Cooperation Council” that would evaluate existing regulations in the U.S. and
EU and recommend future rules while coordinating a response to the current
regulations.
Writing in the left-leaning the Nation magazine, foreign policy
analyst Andrew Erwin said the TTIP was less about reducing tariffs and “more
about weakening the power of average citizens to defend themselves against
corporate labor and environmental abuses.”
Erwin took particular issue with a section in the TTIP called the
Investor-State Dispute Settlement, which stipulates foreign corporations can
sue the government utilizing a special international tribunal instead of the
country’s own domestic system that uses U.S. law.
“The tribunals are not accountable to any national public or
democratically elected body,” wrote Erwin.
Last December, a coalition of more than 200 environmentalists,
labor unions and consumer advocacy organizations drafted a letter asking for
the Investor-State Dispute Settlement section to be dropped.
The
New York Times, meanwhile, reported earlier this week that some American
companies “are concerned that protections for investors will not be part of a
deal.”
While Obama is negotiating the TTIP largely in secret, talks continue
to forge ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. The expansive plan
is a proposed free-trade agreement between the U.S., Australia, Brunei, Chile,
Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The agreement would create new guidelines for everything from food
safety to fracking, financial markets, medical prices, copyright rules and
Internet freedom.
On Tuesday, the leaders of Canada and Japan reportedly met on the
sidelines of a nuclear summit at the Hague to discuss the TPP.
The TPP negotiations have been criticized by politicians and
advocacy groups alike for their secrecy. The few aspects of the partnership
leaked to the public indicate an expansive agenda with highly limited
congressional oversight.
A New York Times opinion piece previously called the deal the
“most significant international commercial agreement since the creation of the
World Trade Organization in 1995.”
Last October, the White House website released a joint statement
with the other proposed TPP signatories affirming “our countries are on track
to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.”
“Ministers and negotiators have made significant progress in
recent months on all the legal texts and annexes on access to our respective
goods, services, investment, financial services, government procurement, and
temporary entry markets,” the White House said.
The statement did not divulge details of the partnership other
than to suggest a final TPP agreement “must reflect our common vision to
establish a comprehensive, next-generation model for addressing both new and
traditional trade and investment issues, supporting the creation and retention
of jobs and promoting economic development in our countries.”
Secrecy
In February, the Open the Government organization sent a letter to
Obama blasting the lack of transparency surrounding the TPP talks, stating the
negotiations have been “conducted in unprecedented secrecy.”
“Despite the fact the deal may significantly affect the way we
live our lives by limiting our public protections, there has been no public
access to even the most fundamental draft agreement texts and other documents,”
read the letter.
The missive was signed by advocacy groups such as
OpenTheGovernment.org, Project On Government Oversight, ARTICLE 19 and the
Global Campaign for Freedom of Expression and Information.
The groups warned issues being secretly negotiated include “patent
and copyright, land use, food and product standards, natural resources,
professional licensing, government procurement, financial practices,
healthcare, energy, telecommunications, and other service sector regulations.”
Lack of oversight
Normally free-trade agreements must be authorized by a majority of
the House and Senate, usually in lengthy proceedings.
However, the White House is seeking what is known as “trade
promotion authority” which would fast track approval of the TPP by requiring
Congress to vote on the likely lengthy trade agreement within 90 days and
without any amendments.
The authority also allows Obama to sign the agreement before
Congress even has a chance to vote on it, with lawmakers getting only a quick
post-facto vote.
A number of lawmakers have been speaking out about the secret TPP
talks.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., recently proposed legislation requiring
the White House to disclose all TPP documents to members of Congress.
“The majority of Congress is being kept in the dark as to the
substance of the TPP negotiations, while representatives of U.S. corporations –
like Halliburton, Chevron, PHRMA, Comcast, and the Motion Picture Association
of America – are being consulted and made privy to details of the agreement,”
said Wyden.
However, Obama has so far refused to give Congress a copy of the
draft agreement.
Regulates food, Internet, medicine, commerce
The TPP is “more than just a trade deal,” wrote
Lori Wallach and Ben Beachy of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch in a New
York Times op-ed last June.
“Only 5 of its 29 chapters cover traditional trade matters, like
tariffs or quotas. The others impose parameters on nontrade policies. Existing
and future American laws must be altered to conform with these terms, or trade
sanctions can be imposed against American exports.”
Wallach and Beachy spotlighted several leaks in the proposed TPP
text, including one that would regulate the price of medicine.
“Pharmaceutical companies, which are among those enjoying access
to negotiators as ‘advisers,’ have long lobbied against government efforts to
keep the cost of medicines down. Under the agreement, these companies could
challenge such measures by claiming that they undermined their new rights
granted by the deal.”
Amnesty
International USA warned draft TPP provisions related to patents for
pharmaceuticals “risk stifling the development and production of generic medicines,
by strengthening and deepening monopoly protections.”
Another leak revealed the TPP would grant more incentives to
relocate domestic manufacturing offshore, Wallach and Beachy related.
Jim Hightower, a progressive activist, wrote the TPP incorporates
elements similar to the Stop Online Piracy Act.
Hightower
wrote the deal would “transform Internet service providers into a private,
Big Brother police force, empowered to monitor our ‘user activity,’ arbitrarily
take down our content and cut off our access to the Internet.”
Indeed, Internet freedom advocacy groups have been protesting the
TPP, taking specific issue with leaked proposals that would enact strict
intellectual property restraints that would effectively change U.S. copyright
law.
The Electronic Frontier
Foundation argued the TPP would “restrict the ability of Congress to engage
in domestic law reform to meet the evolving IP needs of American citizens and
the innovative technology sector.”
In a petition signed by more than 30 Internet freedom
organizations, the group warned the TPP would “rewrite global rules on
intellectual property enforcement.”
With additional research by Brenda J. Elliott.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/obama-secretly-negotiating-away-u-s-sovereignty/#PZ6MYjYD5XwqkdHx.99
Consumer protections and the use of domestic law in the U.S. may
drastically change as President Obama forges ahead with two secretive
international deals that impact major aspects of the economy, privacy and
beyond.
Wednesday, Obama defended a proposed mega free-trade zone between
the world’s two largest economies, the United States and the European Union.
“I have fought my entire political career, and as president, to
strengthen consumer protections. I have no intention of signing legislation
that would weaken those protections,” Obama said during a visit to the EU
headquarters in Brussels.
Obama was responding to criticism of the Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership, or TTIP, which the U.S. has been negotiated with the EU
since last July.
Besides creating the world’s biggest free-trade zone, the TTIP
will also bring about closer cooperation between EU and U.S. regulatory bodies
while more closely integrating the two economies.
One leak about the TTIP revealed a proposed “Regulatory
Cooperation Council” that would evaluate existing regulations in the U.S. and
EU and recommend future rules while coordinating a response to the current
regulations.
Writing in the left-leaning the Nation magazine, foreign policy
analyst Andrew Erwin said the TTIP was less about reducing tariffs and “more
about weakening the power of average citizens to defend themselves against
corporate labor and environmental abuses.”
Erwin took particular issue with a section in the TTIP called the
Investor-State Dispute Settlement, which stipulates foreign corporations can
sue the government utilizing a special international tribunal instead of the
country’s own domestic system that uses U.S. law.
“The tribunals are not accountable to any national public or
democratically elected body,” wrote Erwin.
Last December, a coalition of more than 200 environmentalists,
labor unions and consumer advocacy organizations drafted a letter asking for
the Investor-State Dispute Settlement section to be dropped.
The
New York Times, meanwhile, reported earlier this week that some American
companies “are concerned that protections for investors will not be part of a
deal.”
While Obama is negotiating the TTIP largely in secret, talks
continue to forge ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. The
expansive plan is a proposed free-trade agreement between the U.S., Australia,
Brunei, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore
and Vietnam.
The agreement would create new guidelines for everything from food
safety to fracking, financial markets, medical prices, copyright rules and
Internet freedom.
On Tuesday, the leaders of Canada and Japan reportedly met on the
sidelines of a nuclear summit at the Hague to discuss the TPP.
The TPP negotiations have been criticized by politicians and
advocacy groups alike for their secrecy. The few aspects of the partnership
leaked to the public indicate an expansive agenda with highly limited
congressional oversight.
A New York Times opinion piece previously called the deal the
“most significant international commercial agreement since the creation of the
World Trade Organization in 1995.”
Last October, the White House website released a joint statement
with the other proposed TPP signatories affirming “our countries are on track
to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.”
“Ministers and negotiators have made significant progress in
recent months on all the legal texts and annexes on access to our respective
goods, services, investment, financial services, government procurement, and
temporary entry markets,” the White House said.
The statement did not divulge details of the partnership other
than to suggest a final TPP agreement “must reflect our common vision to
establish a comprehensive, next-generation model for addressing both new and
traditional trade and investment issues, supporting the creation and retention
of jobs and promoting economic development in our countries.”
Secrecy
In February, the Open the Government organization sent a letter to
Obama blasting the lack of transparency surrounding the TPP talks, stating the
negotiations have been “conducted in unprecedented secrecy.”
“Despite the fact the deal may significantly affect the way we
live our lives by limiting our public protections, there has been no public
access to even the most fundamental draft agreement texts and other documents,”
read the letter.
The missive was signed by advocacy groups such as
OpenTheGovernment.org, Project On Government Oversight, ARTICLE 19 and the
Global Campaign for Freedom of Expression and Information.
The groups warned issues being secretly negotiated include “patent
and copyright, land use, food and product standards, natural resources,
professional licensing, government procurement, financial practices,
healthcare, energy, telecommunications, and other service sector regulations.”
Lack of oversight
Normally free-trade agreements must be authorized by a majority of
the House and Senate, usually in lengthy proceedings.
However, the White House is seeking what is known as “trade
promotion authority” which would fast track approval of the TPP by requiring
Congress to vote on the likely lengthy trade agreement within 90 days and
without any amendments.
The authority also allows Obama to sign the agreement before
Congress even has a chance to vote on it, with lawmakers getting only a quick
post-facto vote.
A number of lawmakers have been speaking out about the secret TPP
talks.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., recently proposed legislation requiring
the White House to disclose all TPP documents to members of Congress.
“The majority of Congress is being kept in the dark as to the
substance of the TPP negotiations, while representatives of U.S. corporations –
like Halliburton, Chevron, PHRMA, Comcast, and the Motion Picture Association
of America – are being consulted and made privy to details of the agreement,”
said Wyden.
However, Obama has so far refused to give Congress a copy of the
draft agreement.
Regulates food, Internet, medicine, commerce
The TPP is “more than just a trade deal,” wrote
Lori Wallach and Ben Beachy of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch in a New
York Times op-ed last June.
“Only 5 of its 29 chapters cover traditional trade matters, like
tariffs or quotas. The others impose parameters on nontrade policies. Existing
and future American laws must be altered to conform with these terms, or trade
sanctions can be imposed against American exports.”
Wallach and Beachy spotlighted several leaks in the proposed TPP
text, including one that would regulate the price of medicine.
“Pharmaceutical companies, which are among those enjoying access
to negotiators as ‘advisers,’ have long lobbied against government efforts to
keep the cost of medicines down. Under the agreement, these companies could
challenge such measures by claiming that they undermined their new rights
granted by the deal.”
Amnesty
International USA warned draft TPP provisions related to patents for
pharmaceuticals “risk stifling the development and production of generic
medicines, by strengthening and deepening monopoly protections.”
Another leak revealed the TPP would grant more incentives to
relocate domestic manufacturing offshore, Wallach and Beachy related.
Jim Hightower, a progressive activist, wrote the TPP incorporates
elements similar to the Stop Online Piracy Act.
Hightower
wrote the deal would “transform Internet service providers into a private,
Big Brother police force, empowered to monitor our ‘user activity,’ arbitrarily
take down our content and cut off our access to the Internet.”
Indeed, Internet freedom advocacy groups have been protesting the
TPP, taking specific issue with leaked proposals that would enact strict
intellectual property restraints that would effectively change U.S. copyright
law.
The Electronic Frontier
Foundation argued the TPP would “restrict the ability of Congress to engage
in domestic law reform to meet the evolving IP needs of American citizens and
the innovative technology sector.”
In a petition signed by more than 30 Internet freedom
organizations, the group warned the TPP would “rewrite global rules on
intellectual property enforcement.”
With additional research by Brenda J. Elliott.
1 comment:
since when did he believe he still has the right to be a slave owner to the human race, must less the u.s.a. that we can be sold as cattle for slaughter to the highest bidder in ***HIS*** SECRET MEETINGS WE THE PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW ABOUT, HE IS INSANE TO BELIEVE WE ALL ARE JUST DUMB ANIMALS TO BE USED AS NEEDED AND BRAINWASHED TO OBEY AS ***THEY*** SEE FIT TO DO AS ***THEY*** PLEASE.
just because his family were slave owners in the past, does not make it right, he is NOT BETTER THAN ALL OF US that we have to be on our knees, actiing as sub-human status to this insane imposter.
who is this guy, with many ss#, mutipal last names, different birth cert# with different birth dates, c-mon folks wake up to the new furor puppet on a short choke collar owned ((all power leads to rome saying)) by maybe all the way to the top of the food chain; the coneheads of the vatican that Mrs. Karen Hudes has whistleblown on their existance and their actions with all the money of the world, and other actions too despicable to mention for our emotions and soul.
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