#StopTTIP: Tens of thousands protest trade deal with US in Berlin

[B00Mer]

#StopTTIP: Tens of thousands protest trade deal with US in Berlin

Protesters from a range of political groups have gathered in central Berlin for a protest against TTIP, a trade deal between the US and the European Union that critics say will benefit large corporations at the expense of average Europeans.

Trade unions, environmental groups, charities and opposition parties were among the organizers of the rally, which went from the main railway station in central Berlin to the national parliament. According to activists, 250,000 people turned out for the event, while Berlin police claimed the number was closer to their initial expectation of 100,000.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAVaE23jWnY

Marchers banged drums, blew whistles and held up posters reading "Yes, we can – Stop TTIP." One group dragged a giant wooden horse – a reference to the Trojan horse of Greek legend – to demonstrate how the trade deal is being sneaked into law by corporate lobbyists and EU officials through subterfuge.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is meant to improve trade between the US and the EU, bringing tens of billions of dollars in extra profits to businesses.

Critics fear that it would lead to worse safeguards in Europe, bringing down standards for consumer safety, food and health or labor rights down to those in America. European nations have stricter regulations for things like genetically modified foods or workers benefits than the US does. There is also discontent with the secretive nature of the negotiations, which prompts skeptics to assume the worst about the document they would eventually produce.

A June opinion poll by Emnid showed that 36 percent of Germans saw TTIP as a bad thing, up from 25 percent in February last year, when the first such poll was conducted.

The protest also targets Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a similar trade deal that the EU is negotiating with Canada, which would also be bad for Europeans, according to critics.

There is a growing mistrust with the US in Europe’s leading country amid the scandal over mass electronic surveillance of Germans’ communications and the escalating refugee crisis, which many see as a result of failed American policies in the Middle East.

source: https://www.rt.com/news/318199-berlin-ttip-protest-rally/

 

[B00Mer]

Guess everyone on CC is okay with getting raped and pillaged by the rest of the world..

 

[Curious Cdn]

Perhaps, we should be out in the streets protesting the existence of the EU trading Bloc and their asgressive protective tariffs meant to keep products from places like Canada and the US out of their economies?

 

[B00Mer]

Perhaps, we should be out in the streets protesting the existence of the EU trading Bloc and their asgressive protective tariffs meant to keep products from places like Canada and the US out of their economies?

Better yet we should improvise the same trading blocs and tarriffs to protect Canadian jobs and quit trying to have 36 million Canadian citizens compete against 2 billion citizens where there is no labor laws, environmental controls...

We can't do it..

We have lost our capability to provide for ourselves and out resources won't last forever !!!

Then what, we hand the next generation what??

 

[tay]

Guess everyone on CC is okay with getting raped and pillaged by the rest of the world..

I hate to be Mr. Obvious but I have to ask, which Political party wants the TPP and why would anyone who disagrees with the TPP vote for them........?

From November 14 to 18, 2015, people will converge on Washington, DC to demand that the United States drop these deals and create, in a transparent and democratic way, alternative international agreements that put people and the planet first. Our actions coincide with the APEC meetings in the Philippines, where US officials (including trade reps) will push the TPP, and our Philippine allies will have mass protests.


The TPP, TTIP, & TiSA are much more than trade deals–only 5 of the 29 TPP chapters even deal with trade. They are corporate power grabs that impacts every aspect of our lives. If passed, the TPP, TTIP, & TiSA would take away environmental protections, offshore American jobs & decrease wages, remove food safety laws, curtail internet freedom, inhibit access to lifesaving medicine, spur further financial deregulation and more. Under Obama’s recent Fast Track bill these treaties would even ban climate action and immigration reform.


Here are some of the most dangerous aspects of TPP, TTIP, TiSA.

• Rigged Tribunals: These deals give corporations the power to sue governments for any law or regulation that hurts their expected future profits. So, if your local, state or federal government wanted to put a ban on fracking or GMO foods, increase the minimum wage or worker protections, promote renewable energies or affordable medicine, or regulate big banks they could be sued and forced to remove the law. All of this would happen in rigged trade tribunals where the judges are usually corporate lawyers on temporary leave from their corporate job. This new corporate law would supersede US courts including the Supreme Court.

• Deregulation: Under TPP, TTIP, & TiSA regulations at all levels of government would be forcibly lowered (“harmonized” to the lowest standard of any country in the deal) so that corporations can more easily move between countries. NAFTA and other “free” trade agreements started this process. TPP, TTIP, & TiSA would expand it to new countries and new sectors of economies. This “regulatory harmonization” removes the power of governments to pass laws that protect people and the planet. Furthermore, localization would go out the window. Say good bye to Buy American or Buy Local provisions!

• Privatization: TPP, TTIP, & TiSA would drive greater and permanent privatization of in many sectors of participating countrie’s economies including services which represnt 80% of the US economy. You name it–prisons, education, health care, municipal water, the postal service–and it will probably be turned over to private for-profit companies.All of this takes away our right and ability to create the new world we desperately need.

The TPP, TTIP, & TiSA impact people of color, the poor, and oppressed communities most. These deals would expand US empire, white-supremacy, and corporate capitalism. They would further privatize schools and prisons, allowing the ruling class to profit from the destruction of black and brown communities. They would increase human and sex trafficking, forced migration, and the ongoing genocide of indigenous peoples. All of this would be upheld by more repressive policing and military intervention.
Around the world people are rising against TPP, TTIP, & TiSA. In many countries, thousands are taking the streets to stop these agreements and call for a new system that puts human needs before corporate greed. In the US, a large and diverse movement of movements that includes labor, environmentalists, advocates for food security, education, human rights, housing, education, Internet freedom and more has come together.


This November let us rise together with our global sisters and brothers in creative nonviolent resistance to end corporate globalization.

Join the call to action by completing the form below. Also join the Facebook Event and Invite all of your Friends.


Call to Action Against Global Corporate Domination � Flush the TPP!

 

[Curious Cdn]

Right arm!

Harvey Krishna!

 

[tay]

For those who haven't already voted against your best interests, read the following.


For those that have already voted against your own best interests, read the following and wonder why you did what you did......


Calling TPP a trade agreement lets the pro-TPP people argue that TPP is about trade instead of what it is really about.

Trade is good. Opening up the border so you can get bananas and they can get fertilizer is trade because they have a climate that lets them grow bananas and you already have a fertilizer plant. Enabling companies to move $30/hour jobs to countries with $.60/hour wages so a few billionaires can pocket the difference is not trade.

Calling TPP a trade agreement lets TPP supporters say people opposed to TPP are “anti-trade.”

TPP Is a Corporate/Investor Rights Agreement

TPP is a corporate/investor rights agreement, and that is the problem.

TPP extends patents, copyrights and other monopolies so investors can collect “rents.”

TPP elevates corporations and corporate profits to and above the level of governments. TPP lets corporations sue governments for laws and regulations that cause them to be less profitable. Enabling tobacco companies to sue governments because anti-smoking campaigns limit profits has nothing to do with trade. Enabling corporations to sue states that try to regulate fracking has nothing to do with trade.

While giving corporations a special channel to sue governments, labor, environmental, consumer and other “stakeholder” organizations do not get a channel for enforcement. This helps enable corporations to break unions, force wages down and pollute without cost. This increases the power of corporations over governments – and us.

all of it.....

Stop Calling the TPP a Trade Agreement – It Isn’t. | BillMoyers.com

 

[tay]

The news that the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have concluded is one that should worry Canadians, especially in regards to the relationship between intellectual property rights (IP) and pharmaceuticals (the text of the TPP includes 29 chapters, only five of which are about trade).


Michael Butler's blog | The Council of Canadians

 

[Curious Cdn]

especially in regards to the relationship between intellectual property rights (IP) and pharmaceuticals


Sounds psychedelic, Man.

 

[Ludlow]

Better yet we should improvise the same trading blocs and tarriffs to protect Canadian jobs and quit trying to have 36 million Canadian citizens compete against 2 billion citizens where there is no labor laws, environmental controls...

We can't do it..

We have lost our capability to provide for ourselves and out resources won't last forever !!!

Then what, we hand the next generation what??

One lesson we can learn from history is that protectionism and isolationism only makes things worse when times are rough. An economy already teetering on collapse fate was sealed when the Smoot Hawley Tariff was implemented in the Great Depression of the thirties. It took a world war and a New Deal program to revive a nation.

 

[Dixie Cup]

Well for one thing, 18,000 tariffs will disappear; we'll have more places to sell our goods and imports will be cheaper for consumers. But of course, the "big boys" could care a less about the average joe. It actually means competing with the rest of the world and god forbid, Canadians can't compete - guess that's what bugs the Unions.


So, close off the borders and cancel all trade agreements - lets see how good the economy is then!!


JMHO

 

[taxslave]

I hate to be Mr. Obvious but I have to ask, which Political party wants the TPP and why would anyone who disagrees with the TPP vote for them........?

From November 14 to 18, 2015, people will converge on Washington, DC to demand that the United States drop these deals and create, in a transparent and democratic way, alternative international agreements that put people and the planet first. Our actions coincide with the APEC meetings in the Philippines, where US officials (including trade reps) will push the TPP, and our Philippine allies will have mass protests.


The TPP, TTIP, & TiSA are much more than trade deals–only 5 of the 29 TPP chapters even deal with trade. They are corporate power grabs that impacts every aspect of our lives. If passed, the TPP, TTIP, & TiSA would take away environmental protections, offshore American jobs & decrease wages, remove food safety laws, curtail internet freedom, inhibit access to lifesaving medicine, spur further financial deregulation and more. Under Obama’s recent Fast Track bill these treaties would even ban climate action and immigration reform.


Here are some of the most dangerous aspects of TPP, TTIP, TiSA.

• Rigged Tribunals: These deals give corporations the power to sue governments for any law or regulation that hurts their expected future profits. So, if your local, state or federal government wanted to put a ban on fracking or GMO foods, increase the minimum wage or worker protections, promote renewable energies or affordable medicine, or regulate big banks they could be sued and forced to remove the law. All of this would happen in rigged trade tribunals where the judges are usually corporate lawyers on temporary leave from their corporate job. This new corporate law would supersede US courts including the Supreme Court.

• Deregulation: Under TPP, TTIP, & TiSA regulations at all levels of government would be forcibly lowered (“harmonized” to the lowest standard of any country in the deal) so that corporations can more easily move between countries. NAFTA and other “free” trade agreements started this process. TPP, TTIP, & TiSA would expand it to new countries and new sectors of economies. This “regulatory harmonization” removes the power of governments to pass laws that protect people and the planet. Furthermore, localization would go out the window. Say good bye to Buy American or Buy Local provisions!

• Privatization: TPP, TTIP, & TiSA would drive greater and permanent privatization of in many sectors of participating countrie’s economies including services which represnt 80% of the US economy. You name it–prisons, education, health care, municipal water, the postal service–and it will probably be turned over to private for-profit companies.All of this takes away our right and ability to create the new world we desperately need.

The TPP, TTIP, & TiSA impact people of color, the poor, and oppressed communities most. These deals would expand US empire, white-supremacy, and corporate capitalism. They would further privatize schools and prisons, allowing the ruling class to profit from the destruction of black and brown communities. They would increase human and sex trafficking, forced migration, and the ongoing genocide of indigenous peoples. All of this would be upheld by more repressive policing and military intervention.
Around the world people are rising against TPP, TTIP, & TiSA. In many countries, thousands are taking the streets to stop these agreements and call for a new system that puts human needs before corporate greed. In the US, a large and diverse movement of movements that includes labor, environmentalists, advocates for food security, education, human rights, housing, education, Internet freedom and more has come together.


This November let us rise together with our global sisters and brothers in creative nonviolent resistance to end corporate globalization.

Join the call to action by completing the form below. Also join the Facebook Event and Invite all of your Friends.


Call to Action Against Global Corporate Domination � Flush the TPP!

SO where is the downside?

Note that tay's "sources" are extreme left bloggers. Nothing in the lines of a legal opinion.

 

[Harrypotter]

I hate that we allow protests but shame people that do it.

 

[Scooby]

Anyone who actually believes that cost savings due to tariff eliminations, will be passed on to the consumer is naive. Any employee that believes increased profitability of their company being able to sell goods across borders will benefit them directly is similarly thick. Owners and investors and basically other already wealthy individuals will see great benefits, though. +1 for the ruling class and their snivelling minions, lol.

Hope it does not get ratified, but it probably will.

 

[Dixie Cup]

Anyone who actually believes that cost savings due to tariff eliminations, will be passed on to the consumer is naive. Any employee that believes increased profitability of their company being able to sell goods across borders will benefit them directly is similarly thick. Owners and investors and basically other already wealthy individuals will see great benefits, though. +1 for the ruling class and their snivelling minions, lol.

Hope it does not get ratified, but it probably will.

Since the "wealthy" own most of the businesses that do well, then I can be assured of my job, thank you very much!!


JMHO

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Guess everyone on CC is okay with getting raped and pillaged by the rest of the world..

Guess the attention wh*re is throwing a tantrum to get attention.

 

[tay]

German frustration builds over TTIP secrecy from US

German parliamentarians are demanding access to documents that contain the US position on transatlantic trade negotiations. TTIP supporters in the US argue that Washington shouldn't lay all of its cards on the table.

Even Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats, who support strong trans-Atlantic relations and generally favor a trade agreement with the US, have grown critical. Norbert Lammert, president of the Bundestag, warned this week that parliament would not approve an agreement if it wasn't given greater oversight during the negotiations.

"I see no chance that the Bundestag would ratify a trade agreement between the EU and the USA without involvement in how it came together or any say regarding alternatives," Lammert said.

According to Daniel Hamilton, the executive director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University is concerned that providing greater access to the draft documents will result in leaks that could undermine the negotiations before a text is finalized.

"The real answer here is that in the end TTIP will be a mixed agreement in EU jargon, which means all member-state parliaments plus the European parliament will have to approve it," Hamilton told DW.

Wikileaks has offered a 100,000-euro ($110,090) reward for TTIP documents. There have been repeated Internet leaks to the investigative journalism platform Correctiv.org, based in Germany.

Limiting access to the consolidated texts may be fueling the anti-TTIP fire. In October, more than 150,000 people protested against the proposed trade agreement in Berlin, the largest demonstrations in Germany since the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003. According to a 2014 Eurobarometer poll, 39 percent of Germans support TTIP while 41 percent are against.

"There's a general sense in Germany that German standards are world class and that American standards simply aren't and that it's all about the American Übermacht coming over and steam rolling the European way of life," Hamilton said.

German frustration builds over TTIP secrecy from US | Germany | DW.COM | 31.10.2015

 

[B00Mer]

WERE ALL GOING TO GET SCREWED!!!! :lol:

Bend over and grab your ankles, it's coming weather you like it or not.

 

[tay]

Citizens in Argentina, Chile and Peru took to the streets in droves Friday night to protest the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, which will affect 12 countries and has already seen major objection from citizens world wide.

“This march is informative, because this treaty was negotiated by countries in secret and behind our backs, the most affected,” said one of the leaders of the mobilization in Peru's capital Lima.


Argentina is not directly impacted by TPP – a trade deal that would grant transnational corporations a wealth of new powers – however, citizens took to the street to protest against the rising power of transnationals.

The protesters were particularly targeting the agrochemical company Monsanto, which has made it illegal in several countries for farmers to save their own seeds for the next harvest, forcing them to buy Monsanto seeds each year.

Protests against the TPP also erupted outside of Latin America. Thousands also took to the streets of Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur to urge the government not to sign the trade deal, saying it will lead to higher prices of goods and may displace local businesses by favoring U.S. and other transnationals.

Leaders of the 12 participating countries – United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, Peru and Chile – signed the agreement in October, and took the bill back to their respective parliaments to be discussed.
The leaders are now scheduled to meet again Feb. 4 in New Zealand to ratify the agreement.

South America Takes to the Streets Against TPP | News | teleSUR English

 

[tay]

Sept 17, 2016


Tens of thousands of people have been protesting in cities across Germany against a proposed transatlantic trade deal between the EU and the US.

Protesters say the TTIP will lower European standards on food and environmental protection, and could lead to outsourcing and job-losses.

Supporters of the deal say it promises to lower tariffs and promote growth.

The demonstrators are also protesting against a similar deal with Canada.

There were large crowds carrying flags and banners in seven German cities, including Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt, all braving cool and wet weather.

"I want us to get rid of TTIP and for European social and environmental standards to be respected, maintained and improved," said Peter Clausing in Berlin.

Many demonstrators think the deal would lead to exploitation of people by businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

"It will be the enterprises and banks that will have power over people worldwide", said Tobias Kuhn. "That is a no-go. People need to know that and we will protest until there's no chance of that happening anymore."

A similar but smaller trade deal between the EU and Canada, called the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), is due to be signed in October.

pics

Protests in Germany against transatlantic TTIP and CETA trade deals - BBC News