Hello all. Last week the US government grudgingly released the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership,
a new trade agreement between the United States and a hand-picked group of countries around
the Pacific Ocean. The text is like 600 pages. If you guys are interested, I may go into
some of the details in the coming weeks, but before I do I can tell you for one thing for
sure. The TPP is super racist.
And I say that as someone who likes free trade, likes NAFTA, and thinks the World Trade Organization
is a great idea.
So when I say racist, It’s not Donald Trump racist, it’s a more subtle kind of Racism.
To explain it, we’re going to have to jump into the history of free trade agreements.
This is super important, and like many important things, it can be boring, but we’ll go through
it quickly.
So waaay back in 1947 they came up with this thing called the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade. At the beginning it was just an agreement, mostly between rich countries,
guaranteeing that everybody who signed would treat all members of the GATT the same for
trading purposes. The GATT changed through a series of negotiating rounds. Each of these
rounds added more countries, and added to what agreement did. For example, the Tokyo
round in the 1970s began to focus more on how the internal actions of individual governments
affected trade.
For most of it’s history, the GATT was a rich kids club, with poorer countries on the
sidelines, But that changed with the Uruguay round from 1986-1994, which turned the GATT
into something new, the World Trade Organization to be specific. The WTO is a permanent forum
for trade negotiations and disputes. It aims to include every country in the world, and
as of 2015 it’s almost there.
I like the WTO, But its many critics have a point. It has forced developing countries
to accept a lot of things that aren’t really in their interests, like intellectual property
rules, or a lack of protection for their local industries. The developing countries did all
this in return for a promise. They were now at the table. As they built up resources and
expertise, they would be able to make the world trading system work more in their interest,
and more equally for all mankind.
And that has finally started to happen. Brazil has won concessions from rich countries over
their sugar subsidies. The Doha trade negotiation round, which has been ongoing since 2001 has
given China, India, and dozens of African countries a real say in the evolution of the
world’s trading system. As is to be expected from a complex discussion involving most countries
in the world, this trade round has lasted longer than most. Rich countries aren’t
getting the instant action on issues like intellectual property and trade in services
that they want. To me, this is a sign that the World Trade Organization is finally working
the way that it should. After imposing costs on poor countries for two decades, the WTO
is finally becoming a place where rich countries have to make some concessions too.
The TPP ends all that. After making the developing world suffer to join one club, the United
States government wants to form two newer, smaller clubs who will quickly do what it
says. The TPP locks the developed countries around the pacific together, and it’s sister
agreement, the TTIP, does the same for the US and the European Union. China, India, Brazil
and all the countries of Africa are very conspicuously left out of these new partnerships. The TPP
and the TTIP take the accomplishments of the WTO and make them worthless.
The vast majority of the world's poor people of color are kicked right back out of the conversation. The TPP
might be able to do everything it says for the US economy, but there’s no question that it
is anti-democratic, anti-development, and yes super racist.
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