The TPP, or Trans-Pacific Partnership, is a trade deal advocated by Barack Hussein Obama and involves the US and eleven other nations.

The Washington Post wrote:

Obama pledged that the ­Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the largest free-trade agreement in a generation, would open new markets for U.S. goods and services and establish rules of international commerce that give “our workers the fair shot at success they deserve.”

Obama must wait at least 90 days after notifying Congress of the deal before he can sign it and send it to Capitol Hill, and the full text of the agreement must be made public for at least 60 of those days.

Congress is expected to receive the legal documents to start the 90-day clock later this week. Lawmakers will then have 30 days to review the deal before it is made public.

The next step will be for the U.S. International Trade Commission to conduct a full economic review of the deal. The agency has up to 105 days to complete that work.

Under the terms of “fast track” trade legislation approved by Congress this summer, lawmakers will not be able to amend or filibuster the TPP pact. The only leverage they have is to fully approve the deal or reject it in its entirety. Fast-track also ensures that it takes only a simple majority to pass the deal, but that majority support is far from guaranteed. Obama has battled trade skeptics in both parties this year in his quest to secure the expedited rules. The additional negotiations have done little to sway critics within his party.

The fundamental problem with the TPP is that Obama is involved.  History has proven to me that if there is a stance advocated by Mr Obama, it is deleterious to the United States of America.  I am therefore completely skeptical that the TPP contains much of anything positive for the US.

What does the TPP cover?

The TPP, which has been negotiated for eight years, is a sprawling, 30-chapter accord that addresses tariff reductions for agriculture and automobiles, as well as intellectual-property rights for movies and pharmaceutical drugs, the free flow of information on the Internet, wildlife conservation, online commerce and dispute settlement practices for multinational corporations.

I have yet to discover, however, specific details of the trade deal.  With the Obama administration this is normal.  Today, Trump said he questions the deal specifically with regard to China and currency manipulation.  Conversely, I see nothing about the offshoring of US work.  Or the replacement of US workers by migrants and illegals — I’m pointing my finger at you, Disney — who will work for a lesser wage rate.

Plans to publicly announce a deal in the afternoon were delayed several times as the parties wrangled over the technical details related to market access for dairy products and new-generation biologic medicines.

Those are just two sections of a sprawling, multiple-chapter pact that addresses tariff reductions for agriculture and automobiles as well as intellectual-property rights for pharmaceutical drugs and movies, the free flow of information on the Internet, wildlife conservation, online commerce and dispute settlements for multinational corporations.

Aha, there we go.  The “free flow of information on the internet.”

And as you know is my style and temperament, I like to reference and seek out UK media — where you will frequently discover more information than covered by the American Media Maggots.  True here as well.  From the UKIndependent.com:

TPP signed: the ‘biggest global threat to the internet’ agreed, as campaigners warn that secret pact could bring huge new restrictions to the internet

by Andrew Griffin

The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement covers 40 per cent of the world’s economy, and sets huge new rules for online businesses as well as traditional ones

An agreement that some campaigners have called the “biggest global threat to the internet” has just been signed, potentially bringing huge new restrictions on what people can do with their computers.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the conclusion of five years of negotiations, and will cover 40 per cent of the world’s economy. Its claimed purpose is to create a unified economic bloc so that companies and businesses can trade more easily — but it also puts many of the central principle of the internet in doubt, according to campaigners.

The central principle of the internet should be freedom.

One particularly controversial part of the provisions make it a crime to reveal corporate wrongdoing “through a computer system”. Experts have pointed out that the wording is very vague, and could lead to whistleblowers being penalized for sharing important information, and lead to journalists stopping reporting on them.

Others require that online content providers — such as YouTube and Facebook — must take down content if they receive just one complaint, as they are in the US. That will be harmful for startups looking to build such businesses since they’ll be required to have the resources to respond to every complaint, experts have pointed out.

In 2013, when the partnership was still being discussed, the Electronic Freedom Foundation called TPP “one of the worst global threats to the internet”. The changes are dangerous because to unify the various countries in the partnerships’ rules on intellectual property and other internet law, they are opting to take the US’s largely very restrictive rules.

This doesn’t even factor in the censorship of the internet desired by many other countries.

As well as imposing strict rules on those on the internet, activists point out that some of the parts of the agreement could limit central parts of the internet and modern computers. A restriction on breaking “digital locks” for instance — which is meant to allow companies to control their products even after they have been bought by customers — could stop disabled people from making important changes to their computers or using different technology.

Any possible restriction on freedom is something that I cannot abide.

BZ