From the Citizens’ Trade Coalition:
As might be expected from a back-room deal negotiated with the aid of hundreds of corporate advisors, while the public and press were shut out, the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) not only continues the awful legacy of past trade agreements that put corporate profits ahead of jobs and wages, the environment and public health — in a number of important ways, the TPP is actually far worse than past agreements. Here are five key examples.1.) Worse-than-NAFTA “Rules of Origin” That Threaten U.S. Jobs: The TPP is so poorly negotiated that it allows products assembled from parts made primarily in third-party countries to enter into the United States duty-free — a major rollback from even the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In this manner, goods made in China and other countries with no TPP obligations what-so-ever, be it on weak labor standards or reciprocal market access, have a back-door mechanism to enter the United States, undercutting U.S. employers. The Wall Street Journal warns this TPP provision is likely to destroy hundreds of thousand American jobs in the auto sector alone, although is also applies to everything from food products to computers to solar panels.
