April, 27 2012, 09:00am EDT
State Visit Kabuki: What Happened to Japanese Prime Minister's Big Washington Announcement on Joining Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Talks?
The big news from Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's state visit was supposed to be that Japan would join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement talks. The Obama administration has made the TPP a centerpiece of its heightened economic and security "Pacific Century" strategy. But the TPP, which President Barack Obama seeks to finish this year, does not currently include the major Pacific Rim nations - Japan, China, Russia and Indonesia.
WASHINGTON
The big news from Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's state visit was supposed to be that Japan would join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement talks. The Obama administration has made the TPP a centerpiece of its heightened economic and security "Pacific Century" strategy. But the TPP, which President Barack Obama seeks to finish this year, does not currently include the major Pacific Rim nations - Japan, China, Russia and Indonesia.
Noda announced at November's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hawaii that he wanted in. Until last week, the formal announcement was to be the cornerstone of Noda's Washington visit. What happened?
It might have been the 300 Japanese lawmakers- many from Noda's own political party - who passed a resolution in the Dietthis week demanding that Noda not announce Japan's participation in the TPP. Or, perhaps it was the latest mass demonstration this Wednesday, when thousands of anti-TPP protesters - doctors, lawyers, students, consumer activists, unionists - filled the streets of Tokyo. "No TPP for Japan or the World!" declared their signs, as they streamed by bookstores packed with anti-TPP books. Noda's advance team was treated to a full page Washington Post ad run by a coalition of Japan's powerful consumer and farm groups urging the American public to "Say No to TPP."
This strong opposition to the TPP summarily was dismissed by TheWall Street Journal as "Lost in Translation" -an opinion that not only underestimates the opposition to the trade deal around the world, but spotlights the folly of having the TPP as the leading edge of a U.S. "Pacific Century" strategy.
Noda's unequivocal support for the TPP has generated a mighty backlash in Japan. Negotiations have occurred for several years under conditions of extreme secrecy, which have allowed the pact's corporate and government proponents to brand it as a trade deal that would expand exports. But when senior members of Noda's own political party began exploring the actual content of the TPP, alarm bells rang. The proposal does not stand up to scrutiny.
Of the 26 proposed chapters, few cover trade per se. In short order, Japan's public health advocates, doctors and nurses learned of the proposals that would allow U.S. pharmaceutical giants to challenge Japan's medicine pricing regime, which has cut healthcare costs in Japan. The powerful network of homemaker consumer co-ops learned of the limits on food safety and consumer labeling. The Bar Association and lawmakers learned of the pact's provisions that would allow foreign corporations to skirt domestic courts and directly attack domestic financial regulation, health and land-use policies before foreign tribunals. These venues are staffed by private-sector lawyers empowered to order payment of taxpayer funds for policies that undermine investors "expected future profits." Japanese blogs spread the word about the copyright provisions that would impose SOPA-like rules.
In sum, the TPP, like Dracula, does not stand up well to sunshine. Just days before Noda's Washington trip, members of his administration conceded that the prime minister would not announce Japan's intention to enter the TPP. According to The Mainichi Newspaper, leaders in the Japanese government described the decision as coming while"Noda hopes to prevent the rift within his Democratic Party of Japan from widening."In forcing the prime minister to change his position, the Japanese opposition groups scored a major victory. And, the political activism in Japan underscores how politically contentious and controversial the TPP agreement is - even if not yet here in the United States.
What is the TPP and why is there such opposition to it?
Under the framework now being negotiated, each signatory country would be obliged to bring its existing and future national, state and local laws and policies into compliance with expansive norms covering numerous non-trade policies. This includes limits on financial regulation, government procurement policy, medicine patent and pricing rules, energy and healthcare policies, copyright standards, natural resource management, food safety and labeling and more.
This agenda is not new. It repeatedly has been rejected - in the derailed 34-nation Free Trade Area of the Americas expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to 34 Western Hemisphere nations, the original World Trade Organization Doha Round agenda and the APEC Free Trade Agreement.
Why is the Obama administration pushing the same 1990s "Washington Consensus" package rebranded as a "21st Century Trade Agreement"? Why are Obama administration "trade" negotiators pushing proposals that would result in a ban on Buy American procurement policies and an expansion of investor rules that promote offshoring, while the president is touring the nation touting his agenda to revitalize American manufacturing? The 600 official U.S. trade advisors who represent corporate interests have a lot to do with that. This is their agenda.
But few people know what is really being discussed. As trade lawyer Gary Horlick, a former U.S trade official with four decades in the game, recently noted: "This is the least transparent trade negotiation I have ever seen." While the 600-plus business representatives serving as U.S. trade advisors have full access to an array of draft texts already completed and an inside role in the process, the press, public and congressional staff are locked out. Indeed, draft negotiating texts are classified, and the "most transparent administration in history" signed a special pact not to released texts until four years after a deal is done or abandoned.
Despite the fact that the TPP is being negotiated in unprecedented secrecy, details have begun to emerge. And so has opposition to some of the most extreme provisions - and not just in Japan. The Australian government recently announced that it refuses to be bound to the "investor-state" private corporate enforcement system. Under these rules, attacks against an array of non-trade laws also could be launched directly by any "investor" that happens to be incorporated in any one of the TPP countries. These cases would be heard by three-person tribunals of private-sector attorneys, who often rotate between representing corporations and serving as "judges." They would be empowered to order payment of unlimited amounts of taxpayer funds to investors by governments for any government policy the investor claims violates its expected future profits. Australia now is defending its cigarette plain packaging law against such an investor-state attack.
If this description of the proposed TPP sounds far-fetched, consider the consequences of the other "trade" pacts on which TPP is based:
- More than $350 millionin compensation already has been paid out to foreign investors in a series of investor-state cases under NAFTA-style deals. This includes attacks on natural resource policies, environmental protection, and health and safety measures, and more. In fact, of the more than $12.5 billion in the 17 pending claims under NAFTA-style deals, all relate to environmental, public health and transportation policy - not traditional trade issues.
- Canadian banksare threatening key aspects of the Dodd-Frank financial reregulation package as violating NAFTA.
- Lots of U.S. stimulus money leaked offshore because of limits on Buy American procurement preferences already established in past trade pacts.
- In the last few months, the WTO struck down U.S. dolphin-safe tuna and country-of-origin meat labeling laws, as well as the ban on candy-flavored cigarettes, which is aimed at curbing youth smoking, claiming they violated U.S. "trade" obligations.
The Dangerous U.S. Politics of the TPP:
Among few areas of agreement across parties and region is opposition to more of the same trade pacts. Majorities of Democrats, Republicans and Independents consider our past trade pacts to be damaging to their families and to the nation.The TPP is a political landmine. The pact's core provisions directly contradict Obama's growing focus on American jobs and manufacturing. The idea of allowing U.S. laws to be challenged in secret foreign tribunals is a problem for Mitt Romney - if he is opposed to the federal government interfering in state's affairs, how about United Nations and World Bank tribunals? (Cue the tea party!) At the moment, most Americans have no idea what the "TPP" stands for. But beginning May 8, the next round of closed-door TPP talks will begin in Dallas. The negotiations will garner press coverage, educating Americans about the TPP and will provide a glimpse of what's in store if we don't stop the TPP.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
(202) 588-1000LATEST NEWS
Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," said one advocate.
Apr 17, 2024
While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
"The privacy violations that flow from law enforcement entities circumventing the Fourth Amendment undermine civil liberties, free expression, and our ability to control what happens to our data," said Free Press Action policy counsel Jenna Ruddock. "These impacts affect everyone who uses digital platforms that extract our personal information any time we open a browser or visit social media and other websites—even when we go to events like demonstrations and other places with our phones revealing our locations."
"We're grateful that the House passed these vital and popular protections," she added. "The bill would prevent flagrant abuses of our privacy by government authorities in league with unscrupulous third-party data brokers. Making this legislation into law with Senate passage too would be a decisive and long-overdue action against government misuse of this clandestine business sector that traffics in our personal data for profit."
Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," she argued. "That means passing FANFSA and reforming Section 702 authority—and prioritizing everyone's First and Fourth Amendment rights."
Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
"The passage of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale underscores the extent to which reining in abusive warrantless surveillance is a bipartisan issue," Scott said. "We urge the Senate to take up this measure and close the data broker loophole."
Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
Hamadanchy added that "we hope this vote puts a fire under the Senate to protect their constituents and rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans, once and for all."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a critic of the pending 702 bill and FANFSA's lead sponsor in the upper chamber, called the the House's Wednesday vote "a huge win for privacy" and said that "now it's time for the Senate to follow suit."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Leaked Cables Show Biden Pressuring Nations to Oppose Palestine's UN Membership
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," said one former Lebanese diplomat.
Apr 17, 2024
As the United Nations Security Council prepares to vote Thursday on Palestine's bid to become a full U.N. member, the Biden administration—which claims to support Palestinian statehood—is lobbying UNSC nations in an effort to wrangle enough "no" votes so that the United States can avoid resorting to a veto.
Leaked cables obtained by The Intercept show U.S. pressure on Security Council members including Malta—which currently presides over the body—and Ecuador.
While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
"We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of 'Palestine' as a U.N. member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks," the document advises.
The U.S. argument essentially is that the U.N. should not create an independent Palestinian state by fiat—even though that's precisely how the world body voted in 1947 to establish the modern state of Israel.
The renewed push for Palestine's U.N. membership comes as Israel wages a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, which hasn't controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, rejected the Biden administration's requests to hold off on seeking full membership.
"We wanted the U.S. to provide a substantive alternative to U.N. recognition. They didn't," one unnamed Palestinian official toldAxios on Wednesday. "We believe full membership in the U.N. for Palestine is way overdue. We have waited more than 12 years since our initial request."
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
Along with the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom are permanent members of the UNSC, so they also have veto power.
Ahead of Thursday's planned vote, Spain has been doing its own lobbying in Europe to build greater support for Palestinian statehood. At a joint Tuesday press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the question is "when, not if, but when is the best moment to recognize Palestine."
Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
Currently, 139 of the U.N.'s 193 member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
Critics pointed to the leaked cables as more proof of U.S. duplicity and double standards on the Israel-Palestine issue.
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," Massoud Maalouf, a former Lebanese ambassador to Canada, Chile, and Poland, said on social media.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Database Exposes 'Illicit Network Undermining Democracy Around the World'
Yanis Varoufakis hailed the effort as "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
Apr 17, 2024
"Coups. Assassinations. Riots. Detentions. Disinformation. We know the tactics that have been deployed to undermine our democracies. But who is behind them?"
Progressive International (PI) asks and answers this and other questions with an extensive new database published Wednesday that connects the dots in what the leftist group calls the "Reactionary International"—a loose global network of right-wing leaders and organizations working to subvert democratic institutions.
PI calls it an "illicit network undermining democracy around the world."
"Today is a mask-off moment for the Reactionary International and the parties, politicians, judges, journalists, foundations, think tanks, tech platforms, NGOs, activists, financiers, and entrepreneurs that comprise it," PI said.
"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
"The twin insurrections at the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and BrasÃlia's Three Powers Plaza in 2023 left no doubt about the international coordination of reactionary forces," PI argued. "Yet far too little is known about the entities of this network, their sources of financing, and their institutional allies operating inside our political systems."
Ultimately, PI aims to "support democratic systems to become more resilient to their insidious tactics."
From leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former U.S. President Donald Trump—the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee—to evangelical Christian groups influencing laws in African countries criminalizing LGBTQ+ people and tech companies empowering ubiquitous state surveillance, Reactionary International is a who's-who of the world's right-wing forces.
A cursory search of the database's contents shows users can:
- Learn about Israel's NSO, Rayzone, and Team Jorge, and how a team of Tel Aviv tech entrepreneurs fuel unrest in Latin America;
- Meet the Grey Wolves, Turkey's roving death squad with links to President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan and the ethno-nationalists in his governing coalition; and
- Explore the global network of the Falun Gong, its Trump-connected media outlet The Epoch Times, and its traveling dance troupe known as Shen Yun.
Yanis Varoufakis, a PI member and secretary-general of the left-wing Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, called the database "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
PI invites the public to contribute to the database.
"Together, we will not only name, shame, and expose the forces of the far right—but also dismantle their network of complicity," the group said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular