Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, July 06, 2012

Trans-Pacific Partnership

On June 19, 2012, at a G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Canada would be joining ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations. U.S. President Obama invited Canada and Mexico to join the talks on terms that have not been made public but which are reported to give the new entrants second-rate status, with less room to make changes to the agreement as it moves forward.

The TPP, an Asia-Pacific economic integration pact, now has 11 members: the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam. Japan has also expressed interest in joining the talks, which would reportedly eclipse the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in size and scope.

The TPP is globally controversial because of how it will entrench a myopic vision of market-based globalization that is the main cause of runaway climate change and which has done little to create good, sustainable jobs or reduce poverty worldwide. The TPP also enhances corporate rights to sue governments when public policies interfere with how, when and where they make profits.


In Canada, concerns with the TPP have included: how it could lead to the dismantling of Canada’s important supply management regimes for dairy, poultry and egg production; the race-to-the-bottom potential in a proposed regulatory harmonization chapter; extreme intellectual-property protections for big drug companies that would limit access to life-saving medicines; investor-state provisions that would allow companies to sue governments over rules to protect the environment; government procurement restrictions, and; copyright rules that undermine internet freedom.

There is another (13th) round of TPP talks scheduled for San Diego, California at the beginning of July though it is uncertain when Canada will be allowed to join since Canadian and Mexican participation must be approved by U.S. Congress, which could take 90 days. TPP countries hope to have an agreement finished by the end of 2012 but this deadline is widely seen as overly optimistic.


Key blogs
Media
Resources
Leaked documents
Original Article
Source: canadians.org
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