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After trade ministers from 12 nations approved the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a secretive trade agreement that will further liberalize trade in the Pacific Rim, more than a dozen environmentalist groups released damning statements Monday warning of the dangers of the TPP agreement.
“This is a cynical, last-minute sop intended to divide the environmental community, and doesn’t change the fact that the TPP will likely do more harm than good,” Greenpeace research specialist Charlie Cray said in a statement Monday. “There are better ways to tackle environmental problems than this. There is no way green-looking window-dressing can make up for a secretly negotiated trade agreement that, by design, empowers multinationals to undermine environmental standards.”
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The TPP has a clause that could delay generic medicines for up to 8 years. That's a death sentence. #StopTPP pic.twitter.com/opy6ivZg9M
— ToastyPoptart (@LollipopCrumbs)
October 5, 201
RELATED: Why Should We Care About the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune warned of the impact the deal would have on the climate as it gives big oil companies a free pass on their operations. "The Trans-Pacific Partnership would empower big polluters to challenge climate and environmental safeguards in private trade courts and would expand trade in dangerous fossil fuels that would increase fracking and imperil our climate.”
ICYMI: #TPP trade deal reached. Sierra Club: Congress should reject this polluter-friendly deal http://t.co/u7o684IIHz
— Sierra Club (@sierraclub)
October 5, 201
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) cuts trade tariffs and sets common standards in trade for 12 Pacific rim countries, including the U.S. and Japan. According to estimates, the TPP will affect 40 percent of the world economy.
The TPP as a whole is a frontal assault on environmental and climate safeguards, Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica said in a statement Monday, warning that conservation provisions in the TPP environment chapter “are narrow and will not be enforced”.
RELATED: US Seeks to Regain Influence in Latin America Through TPP
Pica added that the TPP investment chapter would allow firms to sue governments for billions if climate or environmental rules interfere with corporate profits.
The deal will now be presented to the assemblies of participating nations for final approval. In the U.S., many lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, oppose the deal as they argued it would affect local businesses and job opportunities.
Protestors are concerned the TPP deal will allow pharmaceutical companies to monopolize world drug prices. | Photo: Reuters
SustainUs COP21 Delegation Leader Maria Langholz called on the U.S. Congress to reject the deal and “prioritize our communities and climate over corporations."
"The TPP is a huge step backward for the clean energy economy. It incentivizes new fossil fuel exploration and expands the power of corporations to challenge national climate policies, including those included in the COP21 Agreement,” Langholz said in a statement.
Presidential candidate and independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders described the pact as “disastrous” saying that Wall Street and other big corporations “have won again.”
We need trade policies that promote the interests of American workers not just the CEOs of corporations #StopTPP pic.twitter.com/8ipSCK6hKY
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders)
October 5, 201
“In the Senate, I will do all that I can to defeat this agreement. We need trade policies that benefit American workers and consumers, not just the CEOs of large multi-national corporations,” Sanders said in a statement Monday.
RELATED: The Fight Against TPP Proves US Is Not a Corporatocracy
