In a new web-video intended to stir up opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership and other free trade deals under negotiation behind closed doors by the Obama Administration, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) called trade promotion authority being worked on in Congress a “fast track to hell.”
The well-produced, nine minute video released on Thursday morning features Rep. Grayson connecting the economic plight facing many middle class Americans, and the staggering loss of a national manufacturing base, to liberalized trade deals going all the back to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passed in the 1990’s.
“The only ones who’ve benefitted form this treachery are multinational corporations, and middle class America has paid the price,” the Congressman says in the production.
He reserves his most forceful language, however, for the latest salvo of trade deals like TPP and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
The release of the video comes after last week’s markups in the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee of a fast track bill—known as Trade Promotion Authority. The legislation would, as Rep. Grayson points out in the video, prohibit lawmakers from making changes to any trade agreement finalized by the administration.
“It’s the fast track to hell,” Grayson says, urging viewers to contact their Senators and Representatives to vote against it.
The Congressman from Florida takes time to explain the most controversial component of the TPP and other trade deals: Investor-state dispute settlement courts, which allow multinational corporations to file suit against signatory governments in a bit to strike down environmental and labor regulations that the corporations deem as anti-competitive.
Documents published by Wikileaks in March revealed that the tribunals would be staffed by private sector attorneys who would rotate between the positions of advocate and judge.
“It would give away the sovereignty that our founding fathers fought and died for in exchange for nothing,” Grayson says.
The lawmakers noted that he intends to offer an alternative trade proposal based on a plan put forward by billionaire investor Warren Buffet that would require importers to pay for certificates on the goods and services they sell to the US. Grayson says the money raised from the tariffs could be used to increase Social Security and Medicare, cut taxes, and rebuild national infrastructure.
The issue of international trade has divided Democrats, and prompted harsh exchanges between the Obama Administration, which is lobbying for the deals, and populist lawmakers like Grayson and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who’ve bemoaned the lack of transparency around ongoing trade negotiations.
In recent weeks, the Administration has tried to squash criticism by giving lawmakers more access to the text of the agreement.
In an interview with The Sentinel last week, Rep. Grayson said the administration’s recent embrace of sunlight on the issue is “roughly five years too late,” and likely due to the fact that the White House is “losing votes” on the issue.
You can watch the video below, via the website TradeTreachery.com.
