Tell Congress to oppose the Trans Pacific Partnership
If the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) passes, a handful of mega-corporations will be big winners while millions of people in dozens of countries--and the environment--will lose big time. The TPP relies on the influx of the cheapest goods and services and the promotion of transnational corporate profits, regardless of costs to the environment, communities or human lives. This will affect food, fishing, agriculture, energy extraction, retail goods, banking -- literally all sectors of our lives.
Yet after three years of discussion, negotiators still refuse to tell the public what's being proposed! While secrecy is the rule when it comes to the public, hundreds of corporate lobbyists have "cleared advisor" status granting them access to the text. Even more concerning, is that the U.S. trade representative is pushing to "fast track" the agreement.
Join Grassroots International, our Global South partners, and our allies in the US Food Sovereignty Alliance in saying "No!" to the TPP and the fast track!
Together we can stop the one of the most destructive, secret, corporate-driven policies ever.
Dear [decision-maker],
In the State of the Union address, President Obama implied that the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement will create jobs. I don't buy it.
[Your comments will be inserted here.]
The legacy of past pacts on which the TPP is modeled has been the destruction of jobs and livelihoods, not job creation. The North American Free Trade Agreement led to the loss of thousands of good jobs for US workers, the exploitation of Mexican workers and the Mexican environment, and the loss of livelihood for millions of Mexican farmers, who could not compete against the prices of subsidized commodities from the US that flooded their markets. As a result of these actions, US workers were left without work, and Mexican families were forced to migrate to the US to try to survive after they could no longer farm their own lands. I have no confidence that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has taken these lessons to heart.
Please oppose "Fast Track" for the TPP, and reject the TPP itself. Instead, please urge the administration to immediately release draft TPP texts for public scrutiny. Listen to the voices of impacted communities such as small-scale farmers, low-wage workers, and those affected by environmental pollution in the US and around the world, and develop principles for truly fair trade based on their input and experiences.
Race-to-the-bottom trade agreements have to end.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]