Trans-Pacific Partnership

Our current reading assignment, "The Structure of Power in American Society" (by C. Wright Mills), described the power elite in the USA as a cooperative triumvirate of the political directorate (executive branch), corporation executives, and high military, using "increased secrecy behind which great decisions are made without benefit of public or even Congressional debate."

We can see the power elite in action in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

Often referred to as NAFTA or WTO on steroids, it "would establishing a free trade zone that would stretch from Vietnam to Chile, encompass 800 million people—about a third of world trade and nearly 40 percent of the global economy. While the text of the treaty has been largely negotiated behind closed doors, more than 600 corporate advisers reportedly have access to the measure, including employees of Halliburton and Monsanto."

The US Constitution gives International Treaties precedence over other US laws, and to pass this treaty, Obama is seeking "Fast Track Authority", the same procedure used to push NAFTA and WTO through congress.

"Fast Track allowed the executive branch to unilaterally select partner countries for “trade” pacts, decide the agreements’ contents, and then negotiate and sign the agreements — all before Congress had a vote on the matter. Normal congressional committee processes were forbidden, meaning that the executive branch was empowered to write lengthy legislation on its own with no review or amendments. These executive-authored bills altered wide swaths of U.S. law unrelated to trade – food safety, immigration visas, energy policy, medicine patents and more – to conform our domestic policies to each agreement’s requirements. And, remarkably, Fast Track let the executive branch control Congress’ voting schedule. Unlike any other legislation, both the House and Senate were required to vote on a Fast Tracked trade agreement within 90 days of the White House submitting it. No floor amendments were allowed and debate was limited."

All we know about TPP currently comes from chapters exposed by Wikileaks. Only 5 of 29 chapters actually deal with trade issues. The chapter on intellectual property would put into place much of the SOPA law which was vigorously opposed by the internet community. The environmental chapter would role back limits on pollution, logging and fishing.

Mills was right. This is how the power elite operate.

(For less reading, you can also listen to this Democracy Now story about TPP.)