Obama Admin Downplays Malaysia Slavery To Grease Trade Deal

[tay]

Cheap labor is the whole point of our corporate-rigged, NAFTA-style trade agreements. But tolerating slavery? Really? Unfortunately, it looks like that's what is happening with the Trans-Pacific Partnership.


Companies get to move jobs, factories, even entire industries out of the U.S. to countries where people are exploited, the environment is not protected and "costs" like human safety are kept low.


But even so ... tolerating slavery? Flat-out slavery? Really? Unfortunately, it looks like that's what is happening with fast-track trade promotion authority, The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Obama administration.


Malaysia Reclassified

A few weeks ago Wall Street and the giant, multinational corporations got their way and pushed "fast track" through the Congress. This set up a special voting procedure for trade agreements – and only for trade agreements – that makes sure these rigged deals can get through Congress before the public can be organized to rise up in opposition.


However, one good thing did make it into this recent fast-track bill. The bill said the administration cannot go into a trade deal with any country that is a "Tier 3" human trafficking (slavery) violator.


The Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) requires the State Department to compile a Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report that ranks countries according to their compliance with certain TVPA standards. Countries are ranked:


Tier 1 if the fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards.




Tier 2 if they do not fully comply but are making significant efforts to come into compliance.

Tier 2 Watchlist if 1) they are Tier 2 and the number of victims is either very high or increasing; or ; or 2) they were Tier 2 the prior year and have no evidence of trying to fix that or; or 3) they had promised to take additional future steps over the next year.

Tier 3 if they do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making serious efforts to do so.


Malaysia was a Tier 3 country in the 2014 TIP report. The 2015 TIP report was supposed to be released in June but was delayed coincident with the passage of fast-track legislation with the slavery clause. The report was released Monday, and changes Malaysia's TIP rating from the worst "Tier 3" to a “Tier 2,″ even though there is little or no change in Malaysia’s actual performance.


Being a human trafficking country means real things to real people. For example, in late May Malaysian police found mass graves containing the bodies of 139 people, apparently trafficked migrant workers. (Click through for photos of cages where people had been held.)


The findings appeared to indicate a system of jungle camps and graves that dwarfs those found by Thai police in early May, a discovery that ignited regional concern about people smuggling and trafficking.
The discovery also follows repeated denials by top Malaysian officials – who have long been accused by rights groups of not doing enough to address the illicit trade – that such sites existed on their soil.




David Dayen further explains Malaysia's human trafficking situation at The Intercept, in "Blocked From Trade Pact By Its Failure on Slavery, Malaysia Suddenly Gets a Passing Grade":




AFL-CIO:

This decision is wrong and outrageous. It is a political decision that undermines the integrity of the TIP Report and signals that the U.S. is willing to turn a blind eye to modern slavery and grave human and labor rights abuses in order to advance its trade agenda.


The administration has had difficulty securing approval for fast track. Today's cynical upgrade of a nation where forced labor, human trafficking, and exploitation remain pervasive, undermines its promises on labor rights, human rights, and anti-corruption in trade deals and does not bode well for TPP passage.
​

Alisa Simmons, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch,

"The administration knows that the TPP will have trouble in Congress, but turning a blind eye to Malaysia’s grave human rights violations in order to include Malaysia in the pact because it’s one of the few TPP countries we don’t already have a trade deal with and keeping the TPP on Fast Track so Congress’ oversight is limited is shameful. If the Obama administration is willing to ignore people-smuggling camps in Malaysia, why should we believe it would not also ignore TPP member Brunei’s criminalization of homosexuality, TPP member Vietnam’s widespread child labor or TPP member Peru’s rollback of environmental protections?"​

Citizens Trade Campaign is asking people to sign on to this action: "Speak out now against any attempt to gloss over human trafficking in TPP countries."


And from Public Citizen: "Sign the Pledge to Fight the TPP"

 

[taxslave]

Of course American consumers want nothing to do with cheap imports do they?
It's a fact son, if the market place demanded Made in America that is exactly what megacorp would provide and China would be out of a job.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Of course American consumers want nothing to do with cheap imports do they?
It's a fact son, if the market place demanded Made in America that is exactly what megacorp would provide and China would be out of a job.

Don't be silly. If the marketplace demanded Made in America, the Chinese would start stamping "Made in America" on their products. Matter of fact, they already do.

 

[damngrumpy]

Here is a way to correct abuse. American and other developed countries would be required
to pay nation of origin wages, benefits and obey all labor laws that would be in place at home.
In other words full medical, same hourly wage same retirement and safety laws and all
worksafe laws in the home country. All factories would be built to our standards at home as
well. This way the trade deals will deal with quality products and the same cost of production
would apply
No more cheap labor and I would bet most companies would stop shipping jobs overseas

 

[tay]

TPP proponents claim it would benefit our region, creating 1 million Californian jobs. Seriously? (“California should capitalize on global trade with TPP”; Forum, April 17)

The Obama administration received a four-Pinocchio rating from The Washington Post when it claimed that the TPP would help support 650,000 jobs nationwide. California already has lost more than 417,000 manufacturing jobs since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. And it’s not just manufacturing jobs. California’s $403 million trade surplus with NAFTA nations flipped to a $187 million deficit after the pact.

More than 172,000 specific California jobs have been certified under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program as lost to offshoring or imports, which significantly undercounts jobs because the program only covers a subset of jobs lost to trade. Included are 810 Campbell Soup employees hit by the 2012 Sacramento plant shutdown when production was moved to Malaysia and Australia.

If the TPP is approved, U.S. corporations would get new incentives to offshore even more production to countries like Vietnam, where workers make an average of 65 cents an hour.

Studies have produced academic consensus that our trade policies are a major contributor to today’s unprecedented income inequality. The TPP and other NAFTA-style pacts promote offshoring of well-paying U.S. manufacturing jobs, pushing down wages nationwide as trade-displaced workers compete for lower-paying jobs in the service sector that can’t be moved offshore.

Don’t be fooled by claims that TPP would create jobs | The Sacramento Bee

​

 

[Ludlow]

I'll be glad when speech makers term is finished and he can just fade into history. Sick of seeing his face and hearing his voice.

 

[tay]

Stop Calling Deals That Help CEOs Pillage with Impunity “Free Trade”

The “free trade deals” are pretexts for emasculating regulation and prosecution of corporate elites. They have virtually nothing to do with “trade” much less the oxymoronic abuse of the term “free trade.” Consider first why the deals are always crafted in an indefensible manner. The CEOs get to participate in making the deals. Consumers, workers, and investors are excluded under official secret laws. All of economic theory, particularly under Mankiw morality (it would be “irrational” for CEOs not to defraud), predicts that the CEOs would use their unique ability to rig the deals in their favor. They deliberately crafted the deal making system to give them the means and opportunity to rig the deals – they already had the motive.

The only problem is the CEOs have won so big on the tribunals that the EU public overwhelmingly opposes their triumph. The EU public is so enraged, now that it understands the tribunals’ indefensible destruction of the rule of law and sovereignty, that the official position of the EU is that the tribunals are unacceptable in TTIP.

That would seem to be a problem, but the CEOs’ answer to the problem that the public detests their kangaroo tribunals is President Obama – who idolizes the kangaroo nature of the tribunals. Obama appointed Michael Froman as his pro-CEO hatchet man on these cynical deals. Froman is a former Citigroup executive. Froman, with Obama’s consistent backing, has made these indefensible investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunals an overriding goal of any deal the U.S. makes.

What makes Froman so duplicitous is his introduction to ISDS, in which he pictures the kangaroo tribunals as a means to “ensure that the United States and partner countries are able to regulate in the public interest as they see fit” and that the kangaroo tribunals make real “our core values” by “promoting the rule of law.” The kangaroo tribunals and the CEO fraud immunity deals do the opposite. Absent the deals the U.S. and other countries have right to “regulate in the public interest as they see fit.” The thing that emasculates that right – central to the concept of sovereignty and democracy – is deals like TTIP and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). What Froman is claiming is the exact opposite of reality.

Virtually every phrase written in this key Obama administration document about the kangaroo tribunals is an obvious lie or crafted to deceive the reader. I’ll use one sentence to illustrate the point.

ISDS creates a fair and transparent process, grounded in established legal principles, for resolving individual investment disputes between investors and states.
​

ISDS is designed by CEOs to be rigged, not “fair.” The deals’ clauses creating the kangaroo tribunals are invariably made as opaque as possible to the public so that they cannot be effectively criticized. Even when members of Congress finally get to have a copy of the documents – years after the CEOs get access – the “fast track” procedure CEOs insist on effectively prevents Congress from rejecting even indefensible provisions like the kangaroo tribunals.

The Michigan auto worker who is at her best in producing automobiles does not get to specialize in those activities. She is told to give up doing what she does best – or move to a state or Nation that pays its auto workers considerably less.

continue..

Stop Calling Deals That Help CEOs Pillage with Impunity “Free Trade� - New Economic PerspectivesNew Economic Perspectives

 

[taxslave]

Still haven't heard of American consumers complaining abut the lower prices NAFTA and other trade agreements bring or about the returns their pension and investment funds are getting from these companies. Obviously there is no real problem.

 

[Highball]

Tay, you have a good point! Look at what happens when these economic giants jump on those deals. The CEO pay grows to 7 figures. But those workers see few benefits if any.

 

[MHz]

How much they paying for Canadians to be their slaves?? Homesteading in the Borneo (like) rain forest sounds like a real hoot. Snowshoes become rice paddy 'bikes', I'm liking it so far.

Tay, you have a good point! Look at what happens when these economic giants jump on those deals. The CEO pay grows to 7 figures. But those workers see few benefits if any.

That is the whole point, if it went to the workers or consumers they would see a rise in their living standards and then they would just want more all the time, like the present money-changers do.

Still haven't heard of American consumers complaining abut the lower prices NAFTA and other trade agreements bring or about the returns their pension and investment funds are getting from these companies. Obviously there is no real problem.

Jeans made at home (Canada) out of hemp would see each pair last 10 years of hard labor. The rich can buy the new styles and the recycle stores can sell them after that for pennies on the dollar. You can't find prices lower than 'free'.

 

[Curious Cdn]

Don't be silly. If the marketplace demanded Made in America, the Chinese would start stamping "Made in America" on their products. Matter of fact, they already do.

That explains the "Ploudry made in USA" sticker on my Aple I-Pad.

 

[Jinentonix]

That explains the "Ploudry made in USA" sticker on my Aple I-Pad.

I'm assuming you have an Apple knock-off?


Kind of like the Rolecks watch I bought in NYC? :lol:

As for the OP, makes sense to me. Instead of making the previous mistake of importing a bunch of ungrateful slaves from elsewhere, just send the work to the slaves and have them do it in their own countries. That way, 200 years from now, you won't have a bunch of great, great, great grandchildren of slaves running around America playing the professional victim demanding reparations.

 

[tay]

New ITC Trade Report Shows How Dangerous TPP Is for America’s Families

New ITC Trade Report Shows How Dangerous TPP Is for America’s Families

 

[tay]

The U.S. State Department, responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, has said they will not release Hillary Clinton's emails related to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement until November 31.

Clinton emails on trade deal held until after election - CNN Video

 

[tay]

In a conference call today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka expressed confidence that the controversial and still little known TPP trade deal would be defeated stating that “The TPP is hanging on by a thread” and that the “next president will certainly oppose it.”

However, underneath all the bravado and the efforts by the unions, there is little reason for confidence. The Obama Administration has continued to aggressively lobby Congress and the American people on the TPP, repeatedly stating that the deal will “create jobs”, and has many binding provisions in it to raise labor and living standards in third world countries like Vietnam while maintaining (if not also raising) current standards here at home. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has said that the deal could be passed this year.

Furthermore, powerful lobbying organizations and groups such as the National Free Trade Council (NTFC), Wall Street, multinational corporations (such as Comcast and Google) and other forms of evil have continued their efforts on capitol hill as they and the President attempt to ram the TPP through. Specifically during the lame duck session a move which Froman characterized as the “window of opportunity” to get it passed. Why the lame duck session? This strategy is being pursued for several reasons.

First, the lame duck session is unaccountable as many members who lost their bids for reelection, will be able to vote for it without fearing public reprisal. Second, it is likely fewer Americans than usual will be keeping an eye on Congress directly after the November elections as the headlines are usually dominated by the news regarding the transfer of power and much of the election excitement is over.

Indeed, even a deal as wide ranging and impactful as the TPP, which a significant number of Americans are still in the dark about, could pass largely unnoticed. The Morning Consult poll, cited above, is from March 16 of this year and showed a whopping 45%, almost 5 in 10 Americans, do not know what the TPP is. Let me repeat that: 45% of Americans do not know what the TPP is.

That was exactly three months ago. Even more embarrassing is another finding of the poll, which was that 72% of those surveyed had not even heard about the TPP or had heard little about it. Sadly, with Donald Trump dominating the headlines 24/7 and the major media continuing its blackout of any TPP coverage, those dismal numbers are unlikely to improve, something which Froman and President Obama will be glad to hear. Public ignorance plays right into the TPP strategy. It is an indefensible policy, so the less the public knows about it, the better the chances are of getting it passed.

The President and his Administration have done all that they can to first, keep the public from knowing about the TPP, and second, misinform them about it. I can attest to the effect of the hush-hush attitude around the deal, having only learned the bare bones about it back in the middle of 2015 some seven years after negotiations quietly began in 2008 under Republican President George W. Bush.

The TPP has been kept so secret that the title of a May 4, 2015 Politico article characterized the guarding of the agreement as “Extreme secrecy” and went on to explain the protocols that must be undergone to see what’s inside it. What sort of protocols you may ask? Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who led the House opposition to the TPP in 2015 put it well stating “It’s like being in kindergarten… you give back the toys at the end.”

Congressional members who wanted to read the 5,600 plus page deal had to do the following:

• Go to the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center.
• Read one section at a time under supervision.
• Hand over any and all notes before leaving.
• Not speak to anyone about anything that was read. Seeking help from outside experts is forbidden.

Meanwhile, the American people, state legislators, governors, the unions, the environmental groups, or the public interest groups (among others), were intentionally blacked out from decisions made by the 566 member TPP committee. In fact, even some members of the committee, such as the unions were also blacked out from the seven years of negotiations and had almost no say in what was included or not included in the TPP. Richard Trumka put the situation nicely in this excerpt from a February 4, 2014, letter to the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

Instead, the decision making and most of the access laid with some 605 (not all TPP committee members) corporate CEOs, lobbyists, and advisors. 85% of the 566 member committee are either private industry or trade group representatives. These 480 representatives of corporate America also had a chummy relationship between them and the U.S. trade representatives (private citizens, such as Michael Froman, who are “appointed by the President” according to the AFL-CIO) as hundreds of leaked emails have demonstrated in striking detail. Some of the good folks who helped write the TPP included (among many others) the CEO and executive director of international affairs of AT&T, the chief economist of GM, the Vice President, Industry Relations of Halliburton, the Vice President, International Government Affairs of Johnson & Johnson, Anne Alonzo of Kraft, the Director, Public Affairs of Newbalance Shoes, Robert A. McDonald of Procter and Gamble, Director, global trade, of Intel, and three representatives from Wal-Mart including the Associate General Counsel. The picture is clear enough.

But to keep the public from getting an idea of just what many of these companies had in mind during their seven year TPP negotiations once the full TPP text was released President Obama has embarked on a disinformation campaign against the American people.


An example of this can be found in a ‘slow jam’ the President did on the Jimmy Kimmel show over a month ago. There, he subtly advocated for the TPP stating: “I negotiated the new trade deal called the Trans Pacific Partnership or TPP… look Jimmy the TPP allows American businesses to sell their products to home and abroad, the more we sell abroad, the more higher paying jobs we provide here at home, it’s that simple.” In other words, the TPP will create more trade, the more trade that goes on the more jobs are created, at home and abroad, thus the TPP will create more jobs, is the President’s argument. It is one that has been heard before. In the early 90’s, when then President Bill Clinton signed NAFTA, originally an initiative of President George H.W. Bush, he said

“This agreement will create jobs, thanks to trade with our neighbors. That’s reason enough to support it.” Sound familiar?

Of course, the problem is that President Clinton’s rosy language turned out not only to be an exaggeration of what NAFTA actually did but the opposite of what happened. According to the Economic Policy institute (EPI), “it [NAFTA] caused the loss of some 700,000 jobs as production moved to Mexico.”

The vast majority of workers who lost jobs from NAFTA suffered a permanent loss of income.” In a separate thirty seven page report, the watchdog group Public Citizen came to a similar conclusion about NAFTA 20 years after its signing and parroted the EPI’s job loss numbers. Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, has said the same of trade deals like NAFTA stating that, “The labour and environmental side-agreements tacked on to NAFTA have a spectacularly poor track record.”

There is a reason why these groups and organizations are opposed to the TPP. Many reasons in fact, most of which can be found in a twenty five page report by Public Citizen. In their report, published after the full TPP text was released last November, they put the legalise of the deal into words anyone can understand. The report approaches the TPP section by section, and in this article I have paraphrased or directly quoted certain parts of particular importance. I strongly encourage all readers to look through the report later on at their discretion.

According to the report, the TPP’s labor chapter largely ignores the needs of labor.

What labor provisions are included, however, are every bit as weak as the ones regulating the environment. For example, the TPP includes a “commitment to have laws regarding acceptable” working conditions. Fair enough. But the report demonstrates the clear problem with this provision as it “fails to set standards for such laws.” meaning that the minimum wage in Vietnam or Brunei could be as low as the employer desires, such as one penny per hour.

This is an insight into the trade deal that President Obama and corporate America are pulling out all stops to pass this year. This is a look into a deal so little about trade and so much about investor rights that only two of the twenty six chapters cover matters of trade (see “NAFTA on Steroids”).

The TPP: A Corporate Axis of Evil | The Progressive Wing

 

[Durry]

Hmmm I'm wondering if it's Heavy Duty Grease, and if it's summer or winter rated??
Most Greaes today contain moly, but they probably went for the cheap grade eh!!

 

[tay]

So this would let Hillary escape from her sudden opposition to the TPP by blaming Obama....


Obama to push for TPP passage despite opposition from presidential candidates

During a visit from Singapore's prime minister on Tuesday, President Barack Obama will extol the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and commit to getting the deal done, a top White House official said on Friday, even though Obama's fellow Democrats panned it at their convention this week.

Obama wants the Congress to approve the 12-nation trade deal, which he sees as a central part of his economic and foreign policy legacy, before he leaves the White House on Jan. 20.

Free trade deals have been blamed for U.S. manufacturing plant closures, job losses and stagnant wages. Obama has cast the TPP as righting the wrongs of past trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. Both countries also are part of the TPP.

Obama to push for TPP passage despite opposition from presidential candidates | Business | stltoday.com

 

[tay]

Chaos in Malaysia Over Draining of Funds

It’s been less than two years since US President Barack Obama and Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak laughed and chatted during a round of golf as they both holidayed in Hawaii.

Since then the leaders have forged a relationship based on close trade ties, a shared interest in combating terrorism and a level of wariness about China’s military expansion in Southeast Asia. Malaysia as a secular Islamic state plays a key role in pushing back against extremism in the region.

Obama spoke warmly of Najib during a visit to Malaysia in April 2014, thanking him for his “partnership, for your vision for what our nations can accomplish together, not only for our two peoples, but for the peace and prosperity of this entire region.”

The situation just got more complicated.

The US justice department’s bid to seize $1 billion linked to alleged money laundering involving a Malaysian state fund known as 1MDB is the largest single action brought by its six-year-old Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. The civil filings allege a broader $3.5 billion misappropriation from 1Malaysia Development Bhd, whose advisory board was chaired by Najib until recently.

“This investigation puts the Obama administration in a very difficult position,” said Bridget Welsh, a professor of political science who specializes in Malaysia at Ipek University in Turkey. “Najib will have to distance himself from the US and to do that I’d expect him to accuse the US of conspiracy,” she said. “He needs to do something for the grassroots in Malaysia.”

Barack Obama and Najib Razak in a tight spot over 1MDB drama - Livemint


It is all but certain that at some point over the next few weeks if not the next few days, the justice agencies of other countries are going to follow the United States in issuing charges of money laundering, theft of public funds and a plethora of others against Malaysian PM Najib Razak and officials of the scandal-scarred 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Despite the fact that he is due to visit Indonesia on Monday – where criminality of leaders stirs little concern – Najib is finding fewer places to run or hide, except in his own increasingly desperate country. As many as 10 countries are investigating 1MDB or his family. The gilded shopping trips to New York are over, and the homes where he and his bejeweled wife Rosmah Mansor used to stay are now confiscated.

In addition to the United States, the government of Singapore has already lodged charges against officials of the Singapore arm of BSI, the Swiss bank, for money laundering, The Swiss earlier this year issued a statement that as much as US$4 billion had been laundered from 1MDB into Swiss banks, although no charges have been filed yet. In a separate case, two employees of the French defense manufacturer have been specifically charged with bribing Najib by name.

Nonetheless, the prime minister and his allies in the United Malays National Organization and his tame officials have doubled down, determined to contain the scandal domestically if they can’t contain it internationally.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Tightens the Screws on his Enemies - Asia Sentinel | Asia Sentinel

 

[MHz]

There has to be at least a ton of irony in just the headline.

 

[tay]

There are lots of stories in the media claiming that the TPP is dead for now.

And why wouldn’t TPP be dead? Both presidential candidates say they are opposed to TPP. Various Congressional leaders have said that it is unlikely to come up. Nancy Pelosi has spoken out against it. Harry Reid says he opposes it. All labor and environmental organizations along with most consumer, health, human rights and other progressive-aligned groups oppose TPP. Six Republican members of Congress who voted for the “fast track” Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) have sent a letter opposing TPP. Even the Tea Party opposes TPP, calling it “Obamatrade.” Under these circumstances, the very idea that it could come up for a vote at all, never mind that it might even pass, is an insult to democracy.

But here’s the thing: Wall Street wants TPP and the giant multinational corporations want TPP. And what Wall Street and giant multinational corporations want from Congress, Wall Street and giant multinational corporations usually get from Congress. It’s not like insulting democracy is a big no-no to that crowd. So did you really think TPP would just go away?

, President Obama optimistic Congress will pass TPP this year,


Summary: Everyone in the country could oppose TPP but what difference would that make if Wall Street and the giant corporations want it? The strategy is to “move it very quickly” after the election, before democracy and We the People can get in the way and meddle and interfere and regulate and the rest of the pesky things governments do. TPP is designed to push that crap out of the way so corporations can go about their business. All they need to do to get that is push those things out of the way long enough to pass it.

https://ourfuture.org/20160804/dont-be-fooled-tpp-is-still-very-much-alive-you-help-kill-it-for-good?utm_source=progressive_breakfast&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pbreak