Global Research News Hour - NAFTA on Steroids, Three Secret Concurrent Free Trade Deals: Can the TPP, the TTIP and CETA be Stopped? - 12/23/13

Published: Dec. 23, 2013, 10:46 p.m.

b'Webster\\u2019s dictionary defines the term \\u2018Trojan Horse\\u2019 as follows:\\u201c\\u2026someone or something intended to defeat or subvert from within usually by deceptive means.\\u201d[3]The term has been applied by critics to any number of so-called free trade deals that Canada, the United States and other countries around the world are embracing.In Canada, the Harper government recently extolled the virtues of opening up new markets for Canadian goods, services and investment in the European Union and Asia as critical to the nation\\u2019s prosperity. Hence, determined efforts to secure free trade deals with these regions through the Canadian \\u2013 European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) respectively are hailed by the government and pundits alike as centrepieces of the\\xa0Harper government\\u2019s agenda going into 2014.Interesting that the details of these agreements are largely hidden from public scrutiny.The TPP in particular, as noted by Global Research author\\xa0Kevin Zeese, has been drafted with an unprecedented degree of secrecy.The campaign \\u2018FLUSHTHETPP.org\\u2018 claims that the gift horse that is increased trade and investment, conceals a corporate assault on food safety, the environment, worker rights, access to health care, and basically every facet of our lives as free citizens.A recent release of the Intellectual Property Rights Chapter from Wikileaks confirmed the fears of trade liberalization critics that the reach of patents, copyrights, and trade secrets will be extended at the expense of consumer rights and safeguards.[4]To quote Wikileaks editor in Chief Julian Assange:\\u201cIf instituted, the TPP\\u2019s IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you\\u2019re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.\\u201d[5]The\\xa0TPP secured third place\\xa0among Project Censored\\u2019s most censored stories of 2012-2013. The Sonoma State University media research program describes the TPP as \\u201can enforceable transfer of sovereignty from nations and their people to foreign corporations.\\u201dDr. Margaret Flowers\\xa0is a congressional fellow with Physicians for a National Health Program and a pediatrician based in Baltimore, Maryland. She has written extensively on the topic of the TPP, and has championed efforts to stop it in its tracks. Dr. Flowers joins the Global Research News Hour in the fist half of the programme to describe the onerous aspects of this deal, update us on the recent twelve nation talks in Singapore, America\\u2019s \\u2018Fast-Track\\u2019 legislation, and the realistic prospects of grassroots people to bring an end to this deal.CETA, likewise is cloaked in secrecy. Critics like\\xa0Stuart Trew\\xa0of the\\xa0Council of Canadians\\xa0argue the deal extends drug patents and makes community economic development initiatives such as \\u2018buy local\\u2019 policies subject to legal challenges under new procurement rules. Trew will fill out the second half of the programme with a comprehensive look at what we know about the CETA, and how that deal can be stopped.'