The TPP is back.
Despite international protests against the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the United States pulling out of the deal, trade ministers have begun new negotiations to push through the awful deal. The 11 countries remaining in the partnership have already met to get the deal going again.
Nothing has changed. Under the deal, corporations can violate our privacy online, undermine protections for our food, and harm the environment without repercussion. And the TPP still allows corporations to sue governments to overturn laws interfering in their business.
SumOfUs was instrumental in getting the US to pull out of the TPP, and our campaigns helped spark actions all over the world against the disastrous trade deal. We can't allow the TPP to come back from the dead. Will you chip in to help stop the TPP?
The TPP was negotiated by corporations in secret, and once details of the deal were revealed, it's not hard to see why. The partnership:
- Allows companies to sue democratically-elected governments
- Lengthens patents on pharmaceuticals, keeping affordable generics out of reach longer
- Reduces international sanctions against human trafficking and child labor abusers
- Loosens the rules over food exports, allowing unsafe food to reach tables around the world
SumOfUs was a leader in the coalition of organizations that forced the TPP into the open through a Freedom of Information petition. After the entire TPP was made public, the backlash was fierce.
For two years, we marched. We staged massive protests outside the hotels where the TPP was being negotiated. Millions signed petitions and thousands called their legislators. In the US, both parties' presidential candidates faced enormous pressure to reject the deal, and the US formally pulled out early this year. The TPP was all but dead.
But at the recent meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, trade ministers from Japan, Australia, and New Zealand resurrected the horrific deal. They're using their power over the other countries -- including the vulnerable and developing Chile, Mexico, and Malaysia, who are desperate to push their economies forward -- to get the TPP passed through without us noticing.
We've noticed, and we are going to stop them. We are launching a campaign to keep the TPP dead and buried where it belongs. Will you chip in?
More information
BBC News. 21 May 2017.
Forbes. 22 May 2017.
Public Citizen. 25 May 2017.
The Guardian. 27 November 2016.