Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - The #TPP Has Been Published
Aired: 2015-11-06
Duration: 02:40


=== Secret Trade Agreements (02:05) ===

[00:00:00]  So you may have heard of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, otherwise known as the TPP, but the chances are you haven't, or at least you don't really know anything about it.
[00:00:09]  Well, that's because nobody really knew anything about it.
[00:00:13]  It is an international trade deal being negotiated behind closed doors by 12 countries, and the public has not been allowed to see what's in it.
[00:00:24]  The only information we have about the TPP is that which has been leaked to WikiLeaks, and it's very sparse and frankly very worrying.
[00:00:33]  There have been several American politicians who have come forward and said, you guys are not going to like this.
[00:00:40]  Looking at this from a historical perspective, I find this to be a terrifying precedent.
[00:00:44]  I do not think private corporations should be able to negotiate secret trade agreements and then propose them to a dozen different governments.
[00:00:54]  Especially as it really appears from what we've had leaked that these trade agreements are going to supersede national rights.
[00:01:03]  Now, I don't know how true this is or not, because no one had been able to actually read the text of this agreement.
[00:01:12]  Obama has notified Congress that he intends to sign the trade agreement, despite the fact that it was negotiated entirely behind the public's back by private corporations.
[00:01:24]  But the thing is, he has to wait 90 days before he can do that.
[00:01:28]  And lucky for us, the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership has now been released, so we actually have a window of 90 days to read this before it becomes signed into law and theoretically protest against it and possibly get something changed or get it prevented altogether.
[00:01:45]  I haven't had time to read this yet, and I'm probably going to need help with it, because I am no expert on treaties and international law.

=== Could Be Benign (00:50) ===

[00:01:53]  So I've left a link in the description.
[00:01:54]  If anyone is interested in discussing this, please post in the comments below anything that you've found in the partnership that seems relevant, that seems important for people to know.
[00:02:05]  And when we've gone through it, hopefully together, I will post a big update video, or at least some kind of informative package that you can show to people.
[00:02:16]  You can say, hey, look, this is what the governments of 12 countries are doing, probably yours included.
[00:02:21]  You should be protesting this.
[00:02:24]  Now, I just want to point out that I could be wrong.
[00:02:26]  It could be that the TPP is completely benign.
[00:02:28]  I haven't read it yet.
[00:02:30]  I will be reading it along, hopefully with you guys.
[00:02:33]  But I really don't think that anything so benign would need such secrecy in order to make it come into existence.