SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Calling Corporate-Backed Deals an "Indisputable" Good, Obama Makes Pitch for TTIP
Sitting next to Chancellor Angela Merkel during a summit in Germany, U.S. president continued to ignore opponents as he defended controversial agreement with European nations
Apr 24, 2016
Despite the tens of thousands of people who marched against the deal in Germany ahead of his arrival and the steady drop in support for such neoliberal trade deals overall, President Barack Obama stood next to Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday and defended the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and said similar past deals have been an "indisputable" benefit to the U.S. economy.
"It is indisputable that ["free trade"] has made our economy stronger," Obama said during a joint news conference. "It has made sure that our businesses are the most competitive in the world."
Though the failure of past deals like NAFTA have become rallying cries on both sides of the partisan aisle in this year's U.S. presidential campaign--with middle- and working-class Americans speaking out against them like never before--Obama said Sunday that "the majority of people still favor trade" and "still recognize, on balance, that it's a good idea."
Offering a quite visible contradiction to that assertion, tens of thousands marched in the streets of Hanover on Saturday to let both Obama and Merkel how strong their opposition to TTIP remains.
As the New York Times reported from near the summit on Sunday:
Monica Orth, 54, a therapist for teenagers who lives in Bonn, is one of many here who see the trade pact as a plot by big businesses -- often American ones -- to lower consumer standards, bypass national justice systems and undermine Europe's way of life.
"I don't want Monsanto and Bayer to determine which seeds I eat," Ms. Orth said. As two friends nodded in agreement, she added, "Democracy is a really valuable thing, and I don't want big business to take that from me."
At least a dozen other protesters who were interviewed echoed her words. All accused corporations like Monsanto -- the American biotechnology corporation reviled by some for using genetically modified seeds that it says help battle disease -- or the German pharmaceutical company Bayer of trying to force on them products they do not want.
On Sunday, Lori Wallach, director of the Global Trade Watch project for Public Citizen in the U.S., said that the two leaders should reconsider their positions on the agreement.
"President Obama and Chancellor Merkel should continue efforts to deepen the friendship, cooperation, and yes, trade, between our countries," said Wallach, "but the deeply flawed, pro-corporate process and agenda of the TTIP must be rejected."
Wallach further explained:
Two decades of U.S. "trade" agreements becoming delivery mechanisms for extreme investor protections, new monopolies that increase medicine prices and deregulation of food safety and environmental safeguards is fueling the bipartisan revolt against more-of-the-same trade agreements now occupying center stage in the U.S. presidential election.
Unfortunately, the same secretive negotiating process - that is dominated by the interests of 500 corporate advisors, that was used by the Obama administration to conclude the highly unpopular Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) now drives the TTIP negotiations.
When talks were launched in 2013, many hoped TTIP would finally break the U.S. "free trade agreement" model that sets a ceiling on consumer and environmental safeguards and exposes our laws to attack in corporate arbitration tribunals. Instead, the TTIP is shaping up to roll back superior European food safety, chemical and consumer privacy safeguards and climate policies that many Americans would like to see here.
Though Obama recognized the TTIP would likely not be ratified during the final year of presidency, he said he hoped the groundwork would now be laid for his successor to finalize the deal.
"I don't anticipate that we will be able to complete ratification of a deal by the end of this year," Obama said, "but I do anticipate that we will have completed the agreement."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Despite the tens of thousands of people who marched against the deal in Germany ahead of his arrival and the steady drop in support for such neoliberal trade deals overall, President Barack Obama stood next to Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday and defended the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and said similar past deals have been an "indisputable" benefit to the U.S. economy.
"It is indisputable that ["free trade"] has made our economy stronger," Obama said during a joint news conference. "It has made sure that our businesses are the most competitive in the world."
Though the failure of past deals like NAFTA have become rallying cries on both sides of the partisan aisle in this year's U.S. presidential campaign--with middle- and working-class Americans speaking out against them like never before--Obama said Sunday that "the majority of people still favor trade" and "still recognize, on balance, that it's a good idea."
Offering a quite visible contradiction to that assertion, tens of thousands marched in the streets of Hanover on Saturday to let both Obama and Merkel how strong their opposition to TTIP remains.
As the New York Times reported from near the summit on Sunday:
Monica Orth, 54, a therapist for teenagers who lives in Bonn, is one of many here who see the trade pact as a plot by big businesses -- often American ones -- to lower consumer standards, bypass national justice systems and undermine Europe's way of life.
"I don't want Monsanto and Bayer to determine which seeds I eat," Ms. Orth said. As two friends nodded in agreement, she added, "Democracy is a really valuable thing, and I don't want big business to take that from me."
At least a dozen other protesters who were interviewed echoed her words. All accused corporations like Monsanto -- the American biotechnology corporation reviled by some for using genetically modified seeds that it says help battle disease -- or the German pharmaceutical company Bayer of trying to force on them products they do not want.
On Sunday, Lori Wallach, director of the Global Trade Watch project for Public Citizen in the U.S., said that the two leaders should reconsider their positions on the agreement.
"President Obama and Chancellor Merkel should continue efforts to deepen the friendship, cooperation, and yes, trade, between our countries," said Wallach, "but the deeply flawed, pro-corporate process and agenda of the TTIP must be rejected."
Wallach further explained:
Two decades of U.S. "trade" agreements becoming delivery mechanisms for extreme investor protections, new monopolies that increase medicine prices and deregulation of food safety and environmental safeguards is fueling the bipartisan revolt against more-of-the-same trade agreements now occupying center stage in the U.S. presidential election.
Unfortunately, the same secretive negotiating process - that is dominated by the interests of 500 corporate advisors, that was used by the Obama administration to conclude the highly unpopular Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) now drives the TTIP negotiations.
When talks were launched in 2013, many hoped TTIP would finally break the U.S. "free trade agreement" model that sets a ceiling on consumer and environmental safeguards and exposes our laws to attack in corporate arbitration tribunals. Instead, the TTIP is shaping up to roll back superior European food safety, chemical and consumer privacy safeguards and climate policies that many Americans would like to see here.
Though Obama recognized the TTIP would likely not be ratified during the final year of presidency, he said he hoped the groundwork would now be laid for his successor to finalize the deal.
"I don't anticipate that we will be able to complete ratification of a deal by the end of this year," Obama said, "but I do anticipate that we will have completed the agreement."
Despite the tens of thousands of people who marched against the deal in Germany ahead of his arrival and the steady drop in support for such neoliberal trade deals overall, President Barack Obama stood next to Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday and defended the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and said similar past deals have been an "indisputable" benefit to the U.S. economy.
"It is indisputable that ["free trade"] has made our economy stronger," Obama said during a joint news conference. "It has made sure that our businesses are the most competitive in the world."
Though the failure of past deals like NAFTA have become rallying cries on both sides of the partisan aisle in this year's U.S. presidential campaign--with middle- and working-class Americans speaking out against them like never before--Obama said Sunday that "the majority of people still favor trade" and "still recognize, on balance, that it's a good idea."
Offering a quite visible contradiction to that assertion, tens of thousands marched in the streets of Hanover on Saturday to let both Obama and Merkel how strong their opposition to TTIP remains.
As the New York Times reported from near the summit on Sunday:
Monica Orth, 54, a therapist for teenagers who lives in Bonn, is one of many here who see the trade pact as a plot by big businesses -- often American ones -- to lower consumer standards, bypass national justice systems and undermine Europe's way of life.
"I don't want Monsanto and Bayer to determine which seeds I eat," Ms. Orth said. As two friends nodded in agreement, she added, "Democracy is a really valuable thing, and I don't want big business to take that from me."
At least a dozen other protesters who were interviewed echoed her words. All accused corporations like Monsanto -- the American biotechnology corporation reviled by some for using genetically modified seeds that it says help battle disease -- or the German pharmaceutical company Bayer of trying to force on them products they do not want.
On Sunday, Lori Wallach, director of the Global Trade Watch project for Public Citizen in the U.S., said that the two leaders should reconsider their positions on the agreement.
"President Obama and Chancellor Merkel should continue efforts to deepen the friendship, cooperation, and yes, trade, between our countries," said Wallach, "but the deeply flawed, pro-corporate process and agenda of the TTIP must be rejected."
Wallach further explained:
Two decades of U.S. "trade" agreements becoming delivery mechanisms for extreme investor protections, new monopolies that increase medicine prices and deregulation of food safety and environmental safeguards is fueling the bipartisan revolt against more-of-the-same trade agreements now occupying center stage in the U.S. presidential election.
Unfortunately, the same secretive negotiating process - that is dominated by the interests of 500 corporate advisors, that was used by the Obama administration to conclude the highly unpopular Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) now drives the TTIP negotiations.
When talks were launched in 2013, many hoped TTIP would finally break the U.S. "free trade agreement" model that sets a ceiling on consumer and environmental safeguards and exposes our laws to attack in corporate arbitration tribunals. Instead, the TTIP is shaping up to roll back superior European food safety, chemical and consumer privacy safeguards and climate policies that many Americans would like to see here.
Though Obama recognized the TTIP would likely not be ratified during the final year of presidency, he said he hoped the groundwork would now be laid for his successor to finalize the deal.
"I don't anticipate that we will be able to complete ratification of a deal by the end of this year," Obama said, "but I do anticipate that we will have completed the agreement."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.