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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Channeling your inner teenager ... Police Reports ... Ticket Availability ... Channeling your inner teenager ... Police Reports ... Ticket Availability ... COMMENTARY Jeffrey Gillespie: Et tu, Barack? Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Feb. 6, 2015 at 12:01 AM Posted Feb. 6, 2015 at 12:01 AM What do you think? --> Have an opinion on this issue? Send a letter to the editor at www.dailytidings.com/sendletter. » Read more X What do you think? Have an opinion on this issue? Send a letter to the editor at www.dailytidings.com/sendletter . » Social News Capitulation to corporate interests, even by populist Democratic presidents in their last couple of years in office, is old news. Carter did it with airline deregulation in 1978. Clinton did it when he obliterated Glass-Stiegel in 1999. When Barack Obama ran for president, one of his central campaign promises was that he would re-evaluate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a much maligned globalization tactic signed into law by President Clinton in 1994. Apparently, what Obama meant to say was that he would create a monolithic trade scenario, with a scope and ferocity that would make NAFTA look humble by comparison. Lately, he has been pushing anew for the multi-state alliance known as the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which, if passed, will become the largest free trade deal in history. The TPP is shrouded in secrecy. While oversight and access is being offered to hundreds of lawyers and lobbyists for the multinational corporations who will participate, members of Congress have been forced to lobby the White House for access to the actual contents of the agreement. Indeed, the contents are so secret that congressional leaders who are issued a copy of the draft text are compelled to read it on their own, without their staffers. They are then required to return the draft under a virtual gag order. Never mind that the US Congress is mandated to have total authority over free trade under Article One of the Constitution. So, why all the cloak-and-dagger? Unsurprisingly, the TPP has more to do with big-business protectionism (as well as the curtailment of democratic rights) than it does with actual trade. Robert Reich has called it the ultimate "corporate Trojan Horse." The small amount of information that has been leaked to the press is disturbing. Apparently, a key provision of the agreement is the ability that international companies will have to sue nation states in the event that the institutions do not recoup their money on a given investment. The litigation process would be handled, outside of any formal court structure, by an international corporate tribunal. It would be prosecuted and overseen by attorneys for the aggrieved corporation. Additional provisions allow for pharmaceutical companies to extend their patents indefinitely to delay cheaper generics, reduced Internet privacy, relaxed environmental standards, and the continued outsourcing of American jobs abroad. When you consider that the poorest participating country, Peru, has an average annual per capita income of about $11,500, then you can imagine where this all might lead; towards another race to the bottom for big companies and Wall Street banks. Another chance for these entities to eliminate rules and regulations that get in the way of their profits. The administration is attempting to fast-track the agreement, leaving it free from any public review or power to amend. Furthermore, they are promoting the job benefit of the program. The Commerce Department is suggesting that the TPP will create about 650,000 jobs. But since the estimate is based on a calculation that for every billion dollars in exports, there will be 5,500 new jobs created, the gain is nullified. That's because the calculation is ignoring the fact that American imports under the deal would increase by almost the same amount as exports. The real story here is additional deregulation by way of global expansion, to the benefit of the people at the very top. Not only does the agreement dilute the quality of products being delivered into the U.S, but the provisions in the agreement, while all but unseen to the general public in each country, would be privately enforceable by the participating corporations. It's a bad move from Obama, and another bad idea for the American people. Say no to the TPP. Jeffrey Gillespie's writing has appeared in the Santa Fean and Art Collector magazines, the Portland Mercury and Willamette Week. He lives in Ashland. 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