Negotiators from the United States, Canada and 10 other countries reached an agreement in principle on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the ‘free trade agreement’ that has essentially been negotiated in secret over the last several years.
Representing workers across North America, IFPTE – the international union to which Society members are affiliated – has and will continue to oppose TPP, which has been dubbed “NAFTA on steroids.” Unless major changes were included by negotiators, the pact’s contents are designed to primarily benefit multinational corporations at the expense of workers, domestic manufacturers, and IFPTE members’ local and national economies and communities. The TPP is likely to further exacerbate the loss of well-paying jobs in both the Canadian and US manufacturing sectors, grant foreign corporations rights to contest local and national laws and regulations, and undermine financial regulations. TPP further perpetuates the global race to the bottom as TPP nations such as Malaysia, Vietnam, and Brunei have shown little to no commitment to international standards of human and workers’ rights. The trade agreements that TPP is modeled after have repeatedly failed to enforce language on labor and environmental standards.
For more information on TPP, click here to visit the IFPTE web site.
