The hubris that is the TPP

I turn the wheel of life as a farmer. So if the rumors are true. As it’s very hard to say. As the negotiations related to the TPP are conducted behind closed doors and very little or no information at all is made known to the general public.

Why can’t I read it and determine in what way my business will be affected so that I can make the necessary adjustments to try to make the best of a changing business environment.

Why is there a media blackout on the TPP to such an extent that very few people even know about it’s existence. If this ‘trade’ pact is going to affect 800 million people and is so far reaching that it will have an impact on 40% of the world’s economy. Then why are only conglomerates involved in the drafting the terms of the TPP. Who elected these people to represent 800 million people? By what authority do they have a right to tell me what to grow or how I should run my business without even bothering to consult me? Who do they think they are?

Something is very wrong with this picture. It doesn’t seem right at all.

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‘Don’t get me wrong. I am all for free trade. I even believe in the idea that increased competition whether local or global will ultimately deliver higher value and cost savings to the consumer.

But the problem with the TPP is it has nothing whatsoever to do with trade and even less to do with freedom.

Instead from what little I am able to glean from leaked documents, courtesy of wikileaks seems to suggest – The TPP is nothing more than an exclusive rich man’s club that has everything to do with perpetuating corporate hegemony.

For example, I don’t understand how extending the life of patents for pharmaceuticals is able to deliver increased value to the general public. To me it just means, if poor Abdul who suffers from some ailment used to pay $1 for his generic medication. Then after TPP, he would most probably have to pay $10. As $9.99 will be charged as royalties. So where does the higher value and lower cost feature for the average consumer?

Then there are those who are trying to push the ridiculous agenda. The TPP is some geopolitical fulcrum that is supposed to counterbalance the economic and military might of China in the Pacific rim. But that argument to me holds no water whatsoever. As China unlike America doesn’t have an ignominious history of sowing of the seeds of bad karma unlike the Americans who regularly sponsor proxy wars, covert regime changes along with drop 500 kg JDAM bombs on buildings to kill one terrorist and ends up making orphans and widows out of countless innocent Arabs. And these stupid people who have a consistent history of shooting themselves in the foot time and again wonder why ISIS is so popular! The way I see it, the threat posed by American imperialism in the APEC region is far more serious a matter of concern than the beneficial rise of China as an influential economic and military power.

As for the TPP being an economic containment strategy to somehow moderate the rise of China. Again that is argument only serves to insult my intelligence no end – as any economist worth his salt will probably testify – that horse has already bolted out the barn ten years ago! So if you want to do that might as well go invent a time machine.

Above all I deserve to know about the TPP because I repudiate the post modernist rhetoric that is so commonly used as a defense by self serving politicians and bureaucrats who only seem to favor the interest of big conglomerates at the expense of the common man – every economic shift produces winners and losers!

That is not true. If I know what is going to pan out. I can avert losing. And even should I have to deal with a lose/lose scenario. I can always engineer to lose small with the benefit of fore knowledge and timely intelligence. But if I clueless and I can’t even plan – I don’t even know what I am up against or whether I should stand my ground and put a good up a fight or run to the hills….I just don’t know.

These are just a few of my concerns I have about the TPP. Like I said, the TPP is secret and it’s not open to the general public to review or even debate. So that could well be ten, twenty or perhaps even hundreds other concerns. I don’t know…..and that is seems to the problem….no one knows about the TPP, except those who stand to benefit most!’