Japan's TPP negotiator resigns over corruption charges

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As the deadline for world leaders to sign the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP, approaches, protesters are heating up the fight against the controversial 12-country trade pact, including with a new petition signed by over 10,000 people overnight pressuring President Barack Obama and other leaders to not sign the deal as a bribery scandal swirls around a top Japanese TPP negotiator.

The petition was launched by the advocacy group Fight for the Future after news emerged Thursday that Japanese Economy Minister and lead TPP negotiator Akira Amari was embroiled in a corruption scandal accusing him of accepting at least US$148,000 from a private construction company.

Amari resigned over the allegations, but many are concerned that the bribery, though not clearly linked to the TPP, further compromises the legitimacy of the secretive and business-friendly deal.

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TPP Protesters Alarmed by Corruption, Urge Leaders Not to Sign | News | teleSUR English


'NAFTA on Steriods': National Mexican Union Protests TPP


Mexico’s National Workers Union along with rural and social movements have rejected the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP, as they believe it is a trade agreement negotiated without consulting the workers and added that the peasant class will be affected.

"We say no because it was negotiated without consulting us, but also because it will bring serious consequences for Mexico, United States, Chile, Canada and Peru," said leaders at a rally held Friday in the emblematic Zocalo square in Mexico City.
Demonstrators say the signing of the TPP will only benefit transnational corporations.


Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, oppose the TPP because they argue it has the potential to harm people’s quality of life and it is an agreement that has been negotiated in secret.

Meanwhile TPP critics in Mexico have described it as “NAFTA on steroids,” referring to the 1994 free trade agreement signed with the U.S. and Canada, which was a disaster for local agriculture, negatively impacting food security and undermining Mexican farmers.


http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/NAFTA-on-Steriods-National-Mexican-Union-Protests-TPP-20160130-0007.html