President Obama was scheduled to meet with the leaders of the other eleven countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) meeting in Bali, supposedly to plan the “end-game” for this
massive trade deal. However, he has made a sudden decision to cancel his
trip, claiming that this was a casualty of the government shutdown.
Obama's announcement adds to the impression that goal of completing TPP at APEC has become unobtainable and reveal how precariously the negotiations are going.
There are reports
that the remaining TPP country leaders who will be attending the APEC
meeting will still be convening “with the aim of hammering out a
framework.” As we've also previously mentioned, smaller issue-specific
intersessional meetings have also grown more frequent and gone even further underground.
So while the news of his trip getting cancelled is indeed welcome news,
the TPP still could be signed even as its contents remain hidden from
the public.
We only know what kind of copyright enforcement
provisions are in this agreement due to leaks, but what we do know for
sure is that this agreement is driven by corporate interests who want to
enact their own digital policy standards through an undemocratic,
backdoor process. We need to spread the word about the TPP far and wide . . .
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