Corporate power grab of Trans-Pacific Partnership clearer, but opposition building

The usual boilerplate announcements that “significant progress” was achieved in the just concluded round of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations can’t mask that public opposition is growing and that the United States seems to be having difficulty bullying its negotiating partners.

That does not mean that the TPP is dead — far from it — but the continued insistence of the Obama administration that the text will be complete by the end of 2013 is no more than wishful thinking. That Congress might not play its assigned role of rubber-stamping was strongly signaled last week when 151 Democratic Party members of the House of Representatives and a few dozen Republicans signed various letters opposing “fast-track” trade authority. Many did so due to sustained grassroots activism.

“Fast-track” is a mechanism whereby Congress waives its right to debate and amend, instead binding itself to a straight up-or-down yes or no vote in a limited time frame. The worst trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, have become U.S. law through this mechanism. The Obama administration is widely expected to introduce such a bill, passage of which would greatly increase the chances of the Trans-Pacific Partnership getting approved by Congress.

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