The TransPacific Partnership (TPP) - New BRICS On The Block?
What Is The Trans-Pacific
Partnership?
(And Why Have I Not Heard
About It Before Now?)
The Partners:
*The United
States*Australia*Canada*New Zealand*Japan*
*Mexico*Peru*Chile*Singapore*Malaysia*Vietnam*Brunei*
Global Transnational Trading
Blocks Of The Future-TTIP*TPP*BRICS*
The first thing to state is where
I have heard about it from.
I read about it in an excellent
article by By Richard
Chirgwin published in an investigative journal which, like myself, has
only a handful of readers worldwide-probably mainly in the
Anglo-Saxon world. I say sadly because I believe that legislation of
this international proportion will affect India,Africa,Asia to a
profound extent that it is a tragedy we have few fellow-readers (and fellow-traveler participants for discussion) in
these regions-as yet.
It is a new trade agreement negotiated in total secrecy with an estimated 550-600 U.S. corporate lobbyists, completely anonymous, covertly working to bring TPP legislation into effect which will give transnational corporations an equal if not-preeminent footing superseding local (national) and even United Nations convention agreements and laws-effectively driving a coach and horses through disputed UN legislation and sidelining this organization in favor of partisan trade blocks,where legislation favoring major corporations can challenge Governments for loss (or anticipated) of revenues should member countries fail to protect the enshrined status of a corporate product or service. This failure to protect can be very wide ranging from lack of stringent enforcement by government agencies and departments to simply failing to adequately 'police'
copyright and patent infringement on the internet by closing down or blocking servers and with huge fines as deterrents to internet providers or producers of any goods or services in any way deemed competitive, similar and objectionable even on grounds of suspected infringement of any aspect of existing copyright by the transnational holder-thereby freezing all such products until a TPP corporate-agreed (perhaps Government sub-contracted) body investigates and rules on the matter-with huge costs involved to would-be-innovators.
It is a new trade agreement negotiated in total secrecy with an estimated 550-600 U.S. corporate lobbyists, completely anonymous, covertly working to bring TPP legislation into effect which will give transnational corporations an equal if not-preeminent footing superseding local (national) and even United Nations convention agreements and laws-effectively driving a coach and horses through disputed UN legislation and sidelining this organization in favor of partisan trade blocks,where legislation favoring major corporations can challenge Governments for loss (or anticipated) of revenues should member countries fail to protect the enshrined status of a corporate product or service. This failure to protect can be very wide ranging from lack of stringent enforcement by government agencies and departments to simply failing to adequately 'police'
copyright and patent infringement on the internet by closing down or blocking servers and with huge fines as deterrents to internet providers or producers of any goods or services in any way deemed competitive, similar and objectionable even on grounds of suspected infringement of any aspect of existing copyright by the transnational holder-thereby freezing all such products until a TPP corporate-agreed (perhaps Government sub-contracted) body investigates and rules on the matter-with huge costs involved to would-be-innovators.
Secondly, this TPP agreement cannot
be seen in isolation to new emerging trade blocks-such as the
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (a
rival to the TPP for economic and political influence in Asia and The
South China Seas which specifically includes China and specifically
excludes The United States) RCEP
members will include the existing ASEAN member-countries plus
six
(Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.) which
have free-trade agreements with ASEAN.
The
TPP is preceding the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership)-yet another regional trading block-this one between the
US and the European Union.
(A
further block exists in the oil and mineral-rich ' Muslim Stans' of
Central Asia-Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan, with China ,Russia, Europe the United States and Japan
vying for control and influence.)
The
objective of the 2 main blocks (TTIP and TPP) are to extend economic
influence of member-countries in advance of BRICS (yet another
economic trading block with Russia and India in the driving seats)
coming into prominence in the near future. Of these 3 blocks, BRICS
is likely to be the one with the highest growth potential as it will
be incorporating countries in regions which have traditionally been
underdeveloped but with vast mineral-rich potentials. Many countries
in Africa may well,if invited, opt for BRICS membership or
association rather than the legal shackles (and penalties) imposed by
the other two blocks and which are likely to further hamper growth
and development of fledgling industries and home-based companies
servicing local markets in these underdeveloped countries.
What
Is The TPP?
Rather than precise Richard
Chirgwin's excellent article, I would just like to generally
spread the news about what the TPP actually does, then pick up on
specific issues close to my heart.
In essence the TPP is a set of
business regulatory standards which it's members agree to enforce.
It specifically excludes India and
China with the hope that they will eventually opt for inclusion when
bitter rivals are seen over time to
be gaining an upper economic competitive advantage.
(I do not know whether they were
initially invited but declined joining on the basis of the
anti-competitive nature of TPP or they were just ignored.)
At this point, when joining at a
future date, countries such as India and China will be opting to join
a club as 'the poor relatives'-with little rights to amend and an
obligation as signatories to accept legislation already agreed
amongst initial TPP member countries.
But in actual effect many of these
regulatory issues agreed amongst founder TPP-member countries are
likely to affect the ability of, say an independent free-range
non-GMO farmer in Nebraska or Idaho or an African or Asian farmer to
bring a new herbal product to the local (national) and international
market without undergoing such rigorous appraisal-not testing for
public health & safety but bench-mark legal standards for
copyright infringement set by the TPP member-nation's global
multinational or transnational corporation, for the infringement, in
any way, even by a small percentage,of existing copyright or patent,held by
that (transnational corporation) existing TPP member-which more
likely than not, some aspect of the product inevitably will. In
other words, herbal medicine, a life-saving part of the developing
world, will be ultimately virtually outlawed-unless it (the herb) is
already under an umbrella transnational corporation-which will more
likely already be headquartered in a TPP-member country. (Yes OK, it
may be headquartered 'offshore' but in reality it's base is a
TPP-member nation.)
Are you with me so far?;or has the
matter become so complicated that I am already losing your interest?
Don't worry, it's not you! It's just that this TPP draft regulatory
framework is very complex and if you are not a widely-read individual
(or a lawyer) it might just send you to sleep-whereas the opposite is
very necessary for your survival beyond TPP!
Non-GMO Free-Range Produce
(As An Alternative To Monsanto - Enshrined in TPP Legislation )
For example, if I am a Utah
free-range (non-GMO) farmer - or indeed a similar farmer in India or
Africa - and I grow a herb (most pharmaceuticals are herb-based,
then synthesized to mask this origin, now today further genetically
engineered to mask even further-and patented at all 3 stages to
prevent others following-effectively destroying free-market
enterprise innovation in the process) which I want to market,as,say,
for example as a 'natural' mosquito/insect repellant, the first
thing I will now have to do is submit it to rigorous testing-not
under Federal Safety Regulations but under TPP regulations before
sale and distribution in a TPP-member country. So TPP legislation
will supercede national law. These oversights will be sub-contracted
to the legal representatives of the global transnationals (TPP-member
countries) whose only function will be to get this Utah farmer's
product into a 'kangaroo' testing laboratory with the sole objective
of finding some infringement for patent rights in one of the 3 stages
of processing I have already mentioned above. Are you beginning to
get the picture? So the ability to innovate is being concentrated
in the hands of a very few highly technologically-developed
countries-with a number of TPP Third-World/Developing countries, as
clients, included as window dressing. Of course the objective is not
initially the small farmer in Idaho, Alaska, Utah or Nebraska but to
stymie the fast-developing innovative pharmaceutical and herbal
product innovators in non-member countries such as India and China
-which are eating into (existing) global transnational corporations
dominance of the patent and copyright markets and against which they
simply cannot compete with in price. (There are genuine issues of
quality and safety with regard to 'cloned' (generic) products which should not
be ignored but in a truly free-market world, inferior health
products will tank in favor of superior quality and safer products-as
they rightly should.)
So How Should I Respond To
Trading Blocks I Have No influence Over? I am helpless!
The answer is to get local-go
back to basics-but unlike the Taliban and Saudi Arabia-embrace
modernity and opportunity offered by modern communications and the
potential for community cooperatives infrastructures.
On a planet which, far from moving
towards economic global unity, is defining itself through economic
and military 'strength in numbers' competing trading and mutually
exclusive blocks, the objective of the independent non-GMO-enslaved
Nebraska or Rust Belt (independent) farmer should be to ensure the
dissemination of support-infrastructures at local and regional levels
so there are alternative local, non-GMO farmer market and available
produce in all major towns and US cities. Given real free choice,
most consumers would abandon factory-farmed chickens held in pens the
size of your computer monitor by the tens and GMO produce in favor of
healthier alternatives-if they were available at a cheaper price.
Taking advantage of community-owned and community-shared or
cooperative transport to ferry produce across the country will both
keep the profits amongst member-producer-consumers and sideline the
expensive alternatives.
So there are practical things which
individuals can do to provide consumers with real alternatives to the
global transnational blocks-at local community level.
What Percentage of World Trade
Is Located Within Trade Blocks?
So
legislation which is designed to divide the world into trading blocks
whether encompassing
26% of the World's GDP and 20% of
the World's Trade (The European Union) or emerging
60% of global GDP and 33% of world
trade(the TPP) or
30% of GDP and 40% of world trade
(RCEP)
and BRICS (25% of world GDP and
15% of world trade) can work for the benefit of
local people-if they simply opt for more local and community-based
produce(!); this means that local communities need to get back into the
hot seat to produce locally sourced organic produce-and consumers
will also have to sacrifice glossy-packaged and presented goods in favor of more basic
labeling of produce. Domestic Vegetable and Community Vegetable Gardens and EcoArks (my coinage or phrase for mixed vegetable,plant,goats and chicken free-range cultivation) and allotments by independent farmers -either on a barter or a chargeable basis-are also options forward for town and city community farming projects.
In a world more polarized than ever, drifting further apart with formation blocks designed to curtail true free trade, one response at a local level could be an intensification of peer-to-peer
cooperative bartering and farming,peer-to-peer delivery of produce-from producer to consumer
leaving out the middlemen and chain supermarkets. A myriad of services could be contemplated
utilizing peer-to-peer access and skills exchange for goods and services and vice versa.
In a world more polarized than ever, drifting further apart with formation blocks designed to curtail true free trade, one response at a local level could be an intensification of peer-to-peer
cooperative bartering and farming,peer-to-peer delivery of produce-from producer to consumer
leaving out the middlemen and chain supermarkets. A myriad of services could be contemplated
utilizing peer-to-peer access and skills exchange for goods and services and vice versa.
There is not a single consumer
produce in the world which could not be grown in some part of the
United States-in a non-GMO environment for national consumption.
What hinders such development are barriers inside the United States
to the free-market-spreading of fear about any enterprises which
enable groups of individuals to share equally all of the profits (as
with cooperatives) are scare-mongered and legislated out of existence
similar to the hysteria about 'socialized' medicine- thereby ensuring
consumers never have a chance to examine alternatives to work and
profit-sharing than those already existing for corporate America.
Other barriers are inertia to change and the power of hundreds of
years of consumer advertising. I am sure, as day follows night, that
when Community America is up and running, Europe then the rest of the
world will follow. To misquote The Reverend Dr Martin Luther King
(but hopefully within the spirit he would graciously consent to approve) I can
say that '' I've been to the top of the mountain and I have seen the
non-GMO-legislated promised land!''...and we will all get
there....together.....someday...
I had finished my article, but for the paragraph below, when I read a very moving article about the life of St. Patrick, who was taken into slavery as a young boy and, as the story or legend goes, herded goats on Sliabh Mish during enforced childhood captivity. I was particularly struck by his last remark that "whatever situation you find yourself in today, even if it is not what you had planned, God can use you there to do something amazing." (http://cliffmarshall.blogspot.co.uk/?expref=next-blog)
If you want to see how the
forthcoming TPP will affect your ability to innovate-or indeed how
copyright and patent legislation will be policed and enforced-be it
with regard to internet activities, file sharing,selling goods and
products via the internet please refer to the references below. (You can assume that TPP
'rivals' will have similar policies in place!)
Patrick Emek November 2013
Update (02.11.2015)
additional information has now provided greater detail to the TPP agreements.
Please reference this more recent addition first:
https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp
Update (02.11.2015)
additional information has now provided greater detail to the TPP agreements.
Please reference this more recent addition first:
https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp
Original References:
