Activists map plan against Trans-Pacific Partnership

Neglah Sharma

Long Island community leaders, activists and advocates gathered on Thursday at Manhasset’s Unitarian Universalist Congregation to discuss local concerns with President Obama’s controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership before it is taken up by Congress.

The agreement, which was reached in October after seven years of negotiation, is intended to  support the creation and retention of jobs; enhance innovation, productivity and competitiveness; raise living standards; reduce poverty in our countries; and promote transparency, good governance, and enhanced labor and environmental protections,” according to the Obama Administration.

But critics of the controversial 12-nation trade agreement said it was intended to stimulate free trade for corporations by contravening fundamental principles of democracy.

 “We’re concerned that this trade agreement could undermine U.S. environmental laws, health and safety standards, hurt jobs…[as well as] hurt our communities throughout Long Island,” said panelist Eric Weltman, Senior Organizer at Food & Water Watch.

The agreement has been pejoratively dubbed as “NAFTA on steroids” by DemocracyNow.org

“NAFTA was supposed to be the gold standard of trade agreements,”said Ryan Stanton, political director for the Long Island Federation of Labor, which represents 56 different unions in the U.S., and 12.5 million Americans.

“This trade agreement [TPP] is just a repeat of those failures, we’ve lost millions of jobs,” he added.

Stanton said language in the TPP trade agreement is “aspirational” at best, and doesn’t necessarily encourage the trade partners to enact labor laws in nations such as Vietnam and Brunei, compared to the prior agreement drafted during the Bush Administration.  

“They have little to no incentive to actually enforce labor protections…they’re not doing it now,” he said.

Panelist Stan Bergman of the Alliance for Retired American said Long Island’s large retired and aging population could also be affected by TPP. 

Bergman said the agreement could prevent  hospitals and insurance from providing generic drugs due to patent restrictions.

 “There will not be generic versions of drugs available, they will not be encouraged to lower drug prices because there won’t be competition.  It gives the drug companies the ability to sue for profits that they’ve lost,” Bergman said.

 “Doctors Without Borders and AARP agree with us that this is a bad policy,” he added.

Attendees were also critical of what they termed Rep. Kathleen Rice’s change in position to now favor the agreement.

 “She said she wouldn’t sign it, then she does it anyway,” said one audience member, spurring a wave of excited murmurs throughout the atrium.

 The panelists asked attendees to take action, and spread the cause, by directly reaching out to Rep. Steve Israel and  Rice to make a final push before the issue goes to Congress.

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