SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the not-surrendering-to-corporations-for-now dept.
Common Dreams reports
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said [August 25] that the U.S. Senate will not vote on the 12-nation, corporate-friendly Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) this year, buoying progressive hopes that the trade deal will never come to fruition.
[...] McConnell told a Kentucky State Farm Bureau breakfast in Louisville that the agreement, "which has some serious flaws, will not be acted upon this year".
Common Dreams also reports
Germany's Vice Chancellor and Economic Minister said that the controversial Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has "de facto failed", admitting that negotiations between the U.S. and E.U. have completely stalled.
"Negotiations with the U.S. have de facto failed because, of course, as Europeans, we couldn't allow ourselves to submit to American demands", Sigmar Gabriel told the German news station ZDF [1][2] in an interview that will air at 7pm German time [August 28], according to Der Spiegel. [1]
"Everything has stalled", Gabriel said.
[1] In German [2] Content behind scripts
Reported by BBC, in English.
In 14 rounds of talks, the two sides had not agreed on a single common chapter out of 27 being discussed, Mr Gabriel said. "In my opinion the negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it," said Mr Gabriel.
He suggested Washington was angry about a deal the EU struck with Canada, because it contained elements the US does not want to see in the TTIP.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @09:04PM
+1
Worthy of mention is that it's also true for open borders, the free circulation of workers across national boundaries.
It is on the other hand also true that many trade deals contain the opposite of free trade, such as the disastrous copyright and patent extensions in TPP. That trade deal it not a free trade agreement, even if some industries get barriers lowered; It's a huge corporate pork barrel, detrimental to most workers and consumers from all timezones.
But it's worth stressing out the fact that free circulation of goods and people are net positives for the economy, both in theory and in empirical findings. Fear (and bad corporate-sponsored trade deals) should not hold us back.
And we should consider strengthening the labor market policies and social safety nets to accompany those on the losing end of the bargain: overall does not mean for everyone.
- Some actual economist
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2016, @05:06AM
Free trade is one of those things that sounds good in theory but in reality has a whole bunch of unintended consequences that nobody forsees, like NAFTA destroying Mexico's economy [commondreams.org].