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Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, climate, coal, Dow Chemical, environment, Extreme Secrecy, Exxon Mobil, Fracking, Free Trade, government secrecy, harmful chemicals, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, mining, NAFTA, New Zealand, Pacific Rim, peru, Sierra Club, Singapore, TPP, trade impacts, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Unfettered Rights to Corporations, US, US Congress, US Senate, Vietnam
Sierra Club Trade Rep speaking at Anti-TPP Rally, Addison, Texas, 12 May 2012
By the Sierra Club (founded 1892) http://www.sierraclub.org :
“Responsible Trade Program: Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
Activist Toolkit: Check out our new Activist Toolkit on the TPP so that you can influence the biggest trade pact ever http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/toolkit/default.aspx
Check out our report on the impacts of TPP on the climate:
RAW DEAL: How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Could Threaten our Climate http://action.sierraclub.org/site/DocServer/0584_TPP_Report_03_low.pdf?docID=14641
Take Action: The Trans-Pacific Partnership could leave a big fracking mess! https://secure.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=12351
The United States is currently negotiating an expansive new free trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. Eventually, every Pacific Rim nation may be included.
The Sierra Club is deeply concerned about the lack of transparency in the TPP negotiations and the environmental implications agreement. Here’s why:
1. Extreme Secrecy. The TPP is taking place extreme secrecy. No drafts of TPP texts have been released. And public input has been drowned out by dominant corporate input; more than 600 corporate advisors have access to the negotiating text while the public — even Members of Congress — are being kept in the dark. In response, a broad civil society coalition has pushed back to end the secrecy, rallying outside the negotiations to promote public discourse about the important issues at stake, and in the US, persuading USTR to open up the process.
2. Unfettered rights to corporations. Every indication is that the TPP will include provisions that give corporations the right to sue a government for unlimited cash compensation — in private and not-transparent tribunals — over any law or regulation that a corporation argues is hurting its expected future profits. Using similar rules in other free trade agreements, corporations such as Exxon Mobil and Dow Chemical have launched than 500 cases against 95 governments. Dozens of cases attack common-sense environmental laws and regulations, such as regulations to protect communities and the environment from harmful chemicals or mining practices. Read more here http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/resources/Investor-State-Climate-TPP-6-4.pdf about how harmful investment rules included in other trade pacts have led to the attack of climate and environmental policies.
3. Increase in dirty fracking. The TPP may allow for significantly increased exports of liquefied natural gas without the careful study or adequate protections necessary to safeguard the American public. This would mean an increase of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the dirty and violent process that dislodges gas deposits from shale rock formations. It would also likely cause an increase in natural gas and electricity prices, impacting consumers, manufacturers, workers, and increasing the use of dirty coal power. Read our factsheet on the TPP and natural gas exports here! http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/downloads/TPP-Factsheet.pdf
Learn more
• Read our factsheet to learn more about the TPP. http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/downloads/TPP-LNG%20Factsheet%20FINAL.pdf
• Watch a joint webinar of Sierra Club and the Communication Workers of America (CWA) on the impact of the TPP on the economy, workers, and the environment. http://www.cwa-union.org/video/entry/webinar_the_tpp_and_the_race_to_the_bottom#.UtxsWX-kqSM
Read our letter
• Two-dozen environmental organizations call for strong, binding TPP environment chapter. http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/downloads/Enviro%20-%20TPP%20Sign%20on%20Final_11.14.13.pdf
• Ten U.S. Senators Call for Strong and Binding Environment Chapter of the TPP. http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/downloads/Wyden-Snowe-TPP-Enviro-Lette-Oct%202012.pdf
• Twenty three US Senators call for a TPP which leads to job creation, not offshoring. http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/downloads/JOBS-Senate-letter-President-TPP.pdf
• Environmental Organizations call for a strong and binding environment chapter of the TPP http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/downloads/NGO-Letter-Ambassador-Kirk-TPP.pdf ”
© 2014 Sierra Club. All Rights Reserved.
Material was reproduced from a Sierra Club website, http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/trans-pacific-partnership-agreement.aspx , with permission of the Sierra Club
Mining Awareness + 
It seems that Europe may need to take note, as well. The TPP may be a “benchmark” in the US-EU trade talks for their TTIP:
“The TPP negotiations have wider implications than for the 800 million people in the 12 negotiating countries because the US administration, the dominant Party at the table, has declared that the principles outlined in the TPP will be a benchmark in the equally secretive US-EU trade talks for the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) initiated in January 2013.
Current TPP negotiation member states are the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei.” Entire text here: http://wikileaks.org/tpp-sacrificing-the-environment.html