Respected voices among us have come to the conclusion that President Obama would desire tier three Malaysia, the hub of human trafficking, be included in the TPP without expecting that would make a difference regarding the protections and enforcement needed to prevent twenty million people from continuing to be held in bondage, in dangerous, demeaning and disgusting forced child labor.
Really?
If the cries of those who are enslaved around the world today were an earthquake, then the tremors would be felt in every single nation on the continent on every continent simultaneously.
For years, we have known that this crime affects every country in the world, including ours. We’re not exempt.
More than 20 million people, a conservative estimate, are victims of human trafficking. And the United States is the first to acknowledge that no government anywhere yet is doing enough. W
e’re trying. Some aren’t trying enough. Others are trying hard. And we all need to try harder and do more.
At our last meeting of our all of government, President Obama has charged us with the responsibility of creating an all-of-government response. So when we sit down on this, every single Cabinet officer who has a responsibility, whether it’s DHS, Department of Justice, they’re all there, all coordinating.
And I, as the chair, instructed this year that none of us should travel anywhere in the world and fail to raise this issue with our interlocutors, no matter what meetings, no matter where we are. This has to be on the agenda
Remarks at the Release of the 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report
John Kerry, Secretary of State, Ben Franklin Room, Washington, DC, June 20, 2014
HR 181 (1) child human trafficking (as such term is defined in section 203(i) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 14044b), as added by this Act) has no place in a civilized society, and that persons who commit crimes relating to child human trafficking should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law;
(2) the United States, as a leader in monitoring and combating human trafficking throughout the world, must hold all nations to the same standards to which we hold our Nation;
(3) those who obtain, solicit, or patronize a victim of trafficking for the purpose of engaging in a commercial sex act with that person, are committing a human trafficking offense under Federal law;
(4) the demand for commercial sex is a primary cause of the human rights violation of human trafficking, and the elimination of that human rights violation requires the elimination of that demand;
Without TPP the default for any action on this problem is the WTO and GATS which as of 2006 were busy treating migrant workers as a commodity
The WTO would treat the language of HR 181 as a trade barrier.
I realize that many respected progressive voice have denounced the TPP agreement and the TPA which was intended to allow the TPP agreement to be implemented without filibuster or amendment for good reason.
I'm sure that nothing Obama has done over the last six years can possibly make you wonder if it makes sense that his actions are anything other than naive, foolish, misguided, collusive with the Republicans and the corpocracy that has been obstructing his every action tooth and nail, a sellout, more of the same.
We have seen the President get a remarkable amount accomplished with the aid of other progressives in the face of stiff Republican obstruction as regards jobs and the economy through the ARRA, affordable healthcare through the ACA.
We have seen the President work with progressive Democrats to preserve, protect and defend the human and civil rights of immigrants, the poor, the sick, the aged, workers, women, explore ways to lessen the burdens of college students with Pell Grants and proposals for free college.
We have seen a huge shift in direction with the impetus of Vice President Biden for the President to work for marriage equality, stand up for LGBT people to just be people, protect the environment by setting aside 12 million acres of potential future oil and gas leases as wildlife habitat, and by changing the terms of the WTO which see trade as of equal value to the environment to the terms of the TPP which see it protected first. and then you can do trade deals.
Most importantly he has addressed climate change which if everything else we are concerned about were done perfectly still leaves us a part of a sixth global extinction event .
Unless Obama and those who come after him turn things around and get the world globally to say no to energy companies and leave all the carbon in the ground Homo Sapiens won't continue as a species.
That's why getting an end to slavery and Human Trafficking in Malaysia, bringing people who's lives are full of dangerous, demeaning and disgusting degradation, into a situation in which they have enforceable protections with a trade agreement that overrides the WTO's stance that migrant workers are a commodity for whom protections are to be seen as a trade barrier might get him to just say No, you leave those people out its a deal breaker.
Some of you will always be cynical and skeptical, lets label that just being prudent and careful
Since the TPP agreement is confidential and unless you are a member of Congress you can't verify that it has found a way to effectively enforce all the promised protections for labor and the environment, or indeed find out what those protections are without taking the time to read it, you have to suspect the worst, and then of course the worst is confirmed by every headline you glance at.
The track record of trade agreements like NAFTA drafted by the Heritage Foundation in 1980 for Ronald Reagan to prevent Mexican Migrant Workers from joining Caesar Chavez and the farmworkers union leaves us once burned twice shy. Progressives are certain the corpocracy owns government, we live in an oligarchy and or a plutocracy, nothing that comes forth from it can save us from being exploited by the haves and have mores in a race for the bottom.
Objections have been raised toISDS
Objections have been raised to the affordability of HIV/AIDS drugs in developing countries
Elizabeth Warren had her staff prepare a report entitled Broken Promises which documents how between 1980 and 2009 Republican drafted trade agreements failed to protect workers and the environment, and after 2009 enforcements for the protections added for labor and the environment by Obama were circumvented and after 2013 when Obama went through four USTR sherpas or summit guides in one year the enforcements were not effected quickly enough in the WTO or were found to be US barriers to trade.
With the TPA passed Obama can just sign the TPP and wait to see if it gets implemented by Congress before or after the elections.
If Congress rejects TPP what you are left with is NAFTA and the WTO.