Obama’s “Free” Trade Deals are Finished: TPP is Dead and TTIP Soon to Follow
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President Obama's trade deals have all but collapsed following Trump's electoral victory.
Credit – popularresistance.org
Just days ago, True Activist reported
that the US Ambassador to Canada said that the passage of the
Trans-Pacific partnership (TPP) was to be out-going President Obama’s
top priority up until his last day in office. The ambassador’s comments
came after Donald Trump, who campaigned promising to end the US’
“disastrous” trade deals, won the presidency this past Tuesday. Now, it
appears that Trump’s win exerted a stronger influence than Washington
insiders thought as the Obama administration has now announced
that it has given up all hope of enacting the controversial TPP trade
agreement that would have encompassed nearly 40% of the world’s economy.
Obama’s defeat came after Republican congressional leaders said they
would not consider passing the trade deal during the remainder of
Obama’s term, going back on a previously brokered yet tenuous alliance
that would have seen a vote on TPP following Tuesday’s election. The TPP
would have given the national sovereignty of all 12 member nations away to corporate interests,
allowing corporations to effectively control national legislatures by
suing governments over laws with the potential to cut into their
profits.
However, TPP is not the only trade deal in free fall.
The Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) also hangs in
the balance with the pact’s negotiations now on hold indefinitely.
European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom also cited Trump’s
victory as the reason for the pact’s hiatus. She said that the EU’s
trade ministers would wait until Trump left office before resuming
talks, making TTIP’s ultimate fate uncertain. The North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) also appears to be on the chopping block as Canada and Mexico
have both announced that they are ready to renegotiate the trade deal
following Trump’s win. During his campaign, Trump expressed his strong
disdain for NAFTA, calling it “a disaster.” Trump promised to either renegotiate NAFTA or discard it all together while seeking the presidency.
Though Trump has back-tracked
from several of his campaign promises in the aftermath of the election,
his promises to curb globalization and cut down on so-called “free
trade” were very appealing to many of the “blue-collar,” working class
who voted him into power. NAFTA, for example, was largely responsible
for the rise of illegal immigration originating in Mexico as the “free
trade” deal put thousands upon thousands of Mexican farmers out of business
by flooding the Mexican market with cheap, US-grown corn. Free trade
sounds nice, but previous trade deals as well as the leaked text of the
TPP have shown that the only thing “free” about free trade is the
freedom it affords corporations to exploit workers, communities, and the
environment. The end of these trade deals, especially the TPP, is a
victory worth celebrating, though it is likely to anger the global elite
who seek to turn the world
into a “one world” economic zone. It remains to be seen if their
influence will get the better of Trump, which could lead to a trade deal
revival that would further compound the economic suffering of those who
voted for the real estate tycoon.
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