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Sometimes I just want to think those treaties' function is to curtail multinationals, so that countries can be able to effectively organize themselves against t
by jokoon 11y ago
Sometimes I just want to think those treaties' function is to curtail multinationals, so that countries can be able to effectively organize themselves against those corporations who have become hard to regulate in a context of globalization.
So if you want to successfully do it, you have to keep as many people in the dark, since I also believe those big companies have a tremendous influence on politicians. Maybe it's just to let people negotiate in peace, without having to deal with noise you can see on meetings like the G20 or G8, and all the special interests knocking on your door. Maybe this deal is pure international politics, which is going beyond the scope of democracy (the world is not a democracy, last I checked).
We already have separation of church and state, maybe it's time to have separation of business and state? That's why I think it's easy to paint those treaties as A Bad Thing(tm), but I think it's more difficult to grasp the complexity of international politics intertwined with international trade.
Although I could be completely wrong, but I always tend to take things with a bigger grain of salt when it involves activists who can't really give me a clear reason on what X thing is bad.
- hellbanner 11y agoWish I could agree with your optimism.
- RobertoG 11y agoIt's very difficult to give you a clear reason on why X thing is bad because.. well, nobody have seen X. But, if you are not very naive, you should be asking yourself why a free trade treaty is so important when we already have free trade. And if it's only a few changes to the current situation, why all the secret? Anyway, the things that have been leaked don't sound very well.
- witty_username 11y ago> you should be asking yourself why a free trade treaty is so important when we already have free trade Depends on your definition of "free trade", but we don't have completely free trade; many countries have high tarrifs, for example Japan's rice tarrif. http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/10/06/tpp-deal-expected-to-shake-up-japans-agriculture-sector/ http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/10/06/tpp-deal-expec... (OK, this is TPP, but I'm sure the same point applies).
- Symmetry 11y agoFree trade is basically just an absence of rules and so doesn't require a hundreds of pages long document.
- anentropic 11y agoThey listed several concrete examples
- acqq 11y ago> Sometimes I just want to think those treaties' function is to curtail multinationals It is exactly completely opposite. And documented many times over. Just google.
- coldtea 11y ago>Sometimes I just want to think those treaties' function is to curtail multinationals, so that countries can be able to effectively organize themselves against those corporations who have become hard to regulate in a context of globalization. Huh? Those treaties are the wet dream of multinationals and all about further "globalization" (of private interests). That's the very reason they are kept closed.