Obama Trade Policy

Canada and dozens of Belgian towns are pushing back against dangerous international trade schemes promoted by President Obama.

By Rick Brinegar

Proposed trade agreements, to be conducted under international law, have been called “EU-style transnational bureaucracies,” “corporationism,” “corporate welfare,” “a brazen assault on national, regional, and local sovereignty” and “sovereignty surrender wrapped in a trade blanket.” Together, the TPP and TTIP will impact more than 60 per cent of world’s Gross Domestic Profit.

Shrouded in Darkness

The deliberations and the documents for these agreements have been shrouded in darkness. Members of the United States Congress and some of their aids can have a peek at the text of the TPP, as long as they don’t take notes or discuss any details publicly. Members of Australia’s Parliament may look at the TPP text after they sign a confidentiality agreement which continues to apply for four years after the TPP is finalized. Joe Emersberger believes that the negotiations and texts of the agreements are kept confidential because they violate regulations and national laws in order to benefit large corporations.

International Tribunals

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and its Pacific Rim counterpart, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) each set up panels of corporate lawyers to serve as “arbitrators” to decide cases between international corporations and nations, giving international investors the right to sue taxpayers in each of the signatory nations. It is one-sided. Taxpayers have no right to sue international corporations, with no chance for appeal. This overrides the constitutions of the countries which sign the trade agreements. Both a nation and its people are bound to these international trade agreements. Countries will have to surrender their sovereignty to be part of the deal.

Canada May Back Out of TPP

The Canadian government is concerned that the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership will weaken Canada’s dairy and poultry industries, whose prices are propped up by supply restrictions. The United States is seriously considering completing the Pacific Rim trade deal without Canada’s participation. However, after years of delays, negotiators are optimistic about producing an agreement. President Obama secured fast-track authority from Congress to complete his bid to secure a Pacific Rim trade deal last month, with support from both Republicans and Democrats. Finally, the United States will host a meeting of TPP trade ministers in Hawaii at the end of July.

Belgian Cities Oppose TTIP Scheme

Dozens of cities and towns across Belgium have decided to try to “opt out” or nullify the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). They have passed motions or resolutions opposed to the transatlantic “regulatory cooperation” schemes, which they say would force Americans and Europeans to cede more and more authority to unaccountable, European Union-style transnational bureaucracies.

Integration and Expansion

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) currently comprises 12 Pacific Rim member states, but is expected to expand, eventually including Red China. The goal of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a “deep and comprehensive” integration between the 28 member states of the European Union and the United States. The designers of both the TPP and TTIP agreements began with the presumption that the economic communities would constantly expand through the addition of new member states, and by absorbing national, state and local government structures into new supranational regional authorities. This process is similar to the “success” of the European Union, which began as the European Coal and Steel Community, then morphed into the Common Market, then expanded to become the European Community, and finally encompassed the EU, the European super state we have today. The Council on Foreign Relations supports the trans-oceanic political and economic “integration” and “convergence” plans of the TPP and TTIP. CFR President Richard Haass believes that we must choose between “an international system of either world government or anarchy.”

International trade agendas such as the TPP and TTIP benefit only corporate insiders. They set the stage for global government, establishing binding rulings to be enforced on member states. They surrender national sovereignty to international tribunals of corporate lawyers. They represent a conquest of democracy by international corporations and a major step toward global corporate dictatorship and the One World Government prophesied in the Bible.