Chile’s ex-chief negotiator drops a bombshell on TPPA

[Judi Lynn]

Chile’s ex-chief negotiator drops a bombshell on TPPA
Sunday, 2 June 2013, 5:06 pm
Press Release: Professor Jane Kelsey

2 June 2013
For immediate release
Chile’s ex-chief negotiator drops a bombshell on TPPA

In a dramatic public statement, Chile’s former chief negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPPA) Rodrigo Contreras has urged fellow Latin American countries to work together to defend their interests against the demands of rich countries in the talks.

Contreras warned that unless they held back those demands the TPPA will become ‘a threat for our countries: it will restrict our options for development in health and education, in biological and cultural diversity, and in the design of public policies and the transformation of our economies’.

It will also provoke a backlash from Latin America’s increasingly active social movements.

The warning came in an opinion piece in the 16 May edition of Peru’s Spanish language weekly Caretas, at the start of the most recent negotiating round in Peru.*

Contreras stood down from the role in February 2013. Informed bloggers note ‘It’s widely believed that he left his post voluntarily. He’s held in high esteem not just in Chile but among his fellow trade negotiators. His departure left people on the trade beat scratching their heads. It now appears probable that the reason for his resignation was that he saw where the TPP was likely to go and didn’t want his name attached to it.’

More:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1306/S00012/chiles-ex-chief-negotiator-drops-a-bombshell-on-tppa.htm

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[djean111]

2. I really really wish that exposing how awful this "agreement" is would have an effect on it being

enacted. But - look at all those smiling politician faces whenever it is in the news.
Done deal.

[ocpagu]

3. As Laurel Sutherlin once said...

... "This isn’t just a bad trade agreement, it’s a wish list of the 1%—a worldwide corporate power grab of enormous proportions."

http://www.alternet.org/environment/what-you-need-know-about-worldwide-corporate-power-grab-enormous-proportions?paging=off

Not to mention that the secrecy involved in the negociations should be itself a reason for strong domestic opposition against this agreement.

I'm really glad Contreras decided to speak out. Hope more will follow.

Thanks for the news, Judi.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Thanks for sharing this information. Glad to learn there were so many protesters.

Public awareness of these criminals needs more exposure, more sunlight! They must be denied the secrecy they crave.

If people had known what they were up to from the first, they'd be nowhere by now.

[Catherina]

4. Surprising and great news. Criminals. Trying to push GMOs all over too.

As if starving people need to pay even more of a tribute to a state-sanctioned criminal enterprise like Monsanto. Is that the deal now? Let the US control the food so it can control everything? That was a rhetorical question. Screw these all the criminals involved in and supporting these negotiations.



"Rodrigo Contreras has sat in the negotiating room for several years and tried to get the US and others to back off their most damaging demands. He now believes the current direction of the TPPA poses a threat to his country’s economic and social development’."

That can't be shouted loud enough.

Consumer interest groups from across Latin America met in Santiago to express concerns about a free trade agreement that will unite 12 major economies, saying the deal is being signed in secret and will prevent regulation of contentious items such as genetically modified food.

More than 30 organizations released a declaration Thursday denouncing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement under extensive negotiations between 12 countries in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region.

...

Other concerns include an investment dispute stipulation that would allow corporations to sue governments in international commercial court and lower privacy standards for e-commerce transactions.

...

http://www.santiagotimes.cl/world/chile-abroad/26233-consumer-rights-groups-trans-pacific-partnership-to-hurt-consumers

[Judi Lynn]

6. "..... the deal is being signed in secret....." even when it affects multitudes of people.

From your post:

“A certain degree of confidentiality is required in order for parties to negotiate frankly and productively,” Carol Guthrie, a spokeswoman from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, told The Santiago Times.

[center]

Carol Guthrie, US Trade[/center]
This all has to change. It IS a crime.

[idwiyo]

7. K&R