04 August 2016
Wikileaks' viewpoint of international trade agreements
During the Presidential primaries, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump expressed opposition to international trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership championed by Barack Obama and supported/opposed [depending on what day this is] by Hillary Clinton.
In stump speeches opposition to the TPP boils down to "free trade takes away jobs by having the labor done in the third world and shipping the products here." This 8-minute Wikileaks video explains that it's more complicated (and more sinister) than that.
Informed discussion of this video at this Documentaries subreddit thread.
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I'm no fan of the TPP and I appreciate the efforts of Wikileaks, but I'm also recognizing the activist nature of Wikileaks, primarily as they attempt to influence the American election.
ReplyDeleteThe big issue I have with this is that the explanations are offered by their own "investigative journalists" without using external references. What do policy experts think about this? Even with the amount of US overstep and corporate support, might this relate to long-term economic stability worldwide? Is that more important than corporate overreach?
If I've learned anything from this round of elections, it's that just because something is bad, doesn't mean it's not good.
Personally, I'm not as much upset about the trade agreement plans per se (which have existed since the spice wars and before), but about the apparent secrecy in which they are conducted, with more disclosure to corporations than to the public (or to our representatives). I don't think we need to vote on everything (and the American public is notoriously uninformed on what we vote about anyway), but policies this comprehensive should be subjected to public debate. Such maneuvers are part of the trend toward an "imperial presidency" which I do not favor.
DeletePart of the problem is that we have fewer and fewer investigative reporters these days because of the lack of paid professional journalism. A recent investigative reporter commented that just one paragraph in a recent NY Times investigative report represented an investment of $10,000.
DeleteIf it wasn't for "activist" organizations today, we'd be getting little if any news contrary to the official corporate line.