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A few days ago, the United States, Japan and 10 other countries from the Pacific region arrived at a final agreement to approve what has been cited as the largest regional trade accord in history, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. The trade deal focuses on lowering trade barriers to goods and services, tightens intellectual property (IP) laws and establishes an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.
TPP, like other Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), is fashioned by industrial countries and their transnational corporations to further intensify the concentration of resources, wealth, and power into their hands leaving developing countries to experience more inequality and become more vulnerable to the economic depression happening in the US and European economies.
The signing of the TPP agreement is indeed a step to victory for the Obama administration,the orchestrator of the free trade deal. However, the final struggle for its implementation still lies in the US Congress’ approval of the accord.
What can we do?
There is an increasing strength of peoples’ movements organizing to oppose FTAs around the world. In order to help, we urge everyone to support calls to action versus FTAs by promoting awareness on the impacts of these deals to the people of the global South. Let us continue to mobilize, organize and build mass movements against FTAs and imperialist globalization.
As a start, you can download our free anti-FTAs materials below and spread the information to the public.
