Robert Reich: The Trans Pacific Partnership must be stopped

The former secretary of labor on why the deal is making the world safer for global corporations -- at our expense

Published May 7, 2015 8:45AM (EDT)

This originally appeared on Robert Reich's blog.

The heinous Trans Pacific Partnership is now moving in Congress. It’s not really about trade – most tariffs are now low – but about making the world safer for global corporations. It allows big global corporations to sue countries for health, safety, environmental, and labor protections that reduce corporate profits. Its so-called labor and environmental protections are unenforceable. And rather than strengthen America’s hand against China (as its proponents claim), it only strengthens the hands of giant American-based corporations – whose loyalty is to their shareholders rather than to the United States. (These corporations will do whatever China wants if it helps their bottom lines.)

It’s a bad deal for Americans. Please call your senators and your representative and tell them you don’t want the Trans Pacific Partnership, and you don’t want “fast-track” that allows it to speed through Congress without debate or amendment.


By Robert Reich

Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written 15 books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "The Common Good." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." He's also co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving Capitalism."

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China Congress Robertreich.org Trans-pacific Partnership Video