The Trans Pacific Partnership is BAD for you and me. Call your congresspeople NOW AND TELL THEM TO VOTE "NO" ON THIS SECRETIVE FREE TRADE PACT THAT DOES MUCH MORE HARM THAN GOOD.

Trans-Pacific Trade Pact Threatens Efforts to Bring Jobs Home

From closing tax loopholes that reward offshoring to investing in better public infrastructure, there is no shortage of steps policy makers could take to encourage "onshoring."  Politicians must use much-closer oversight over the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.  This horrendous free trade agreement has been negotiated in private without even Congress knowing the details and certainly the media not informing the public.  Why?  Because it's devastating for every American except the global multinational corporations--and it's up for a fast-track up/down vote in Congress in the next few weeks.

Data from the U.S. Labor Department shows that Illinois has lost an estimated 35,000 manufacturing jobs due to direct offshoring and displacement by imports since NAFTA) was first enacted.   But a massive new free trade agreement for the Pacific Rim threatens to undercut them.  

The proposed twelve-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would create new rules governing trade and investment covering approximately 40% of the global economy, and it contains mechanisms that would allow additional countries to join over time.  

The first has to do with labor costs giving retailers' access to even lower-cost labor markets in countries like Vietnam and Malaysia — creating incentives to offshore to those countries.

The second has to do with energy costs.   The TPP contains multiple provisions that would ease and accelerate the export of natural gas and other fossil fuels, lowering energy costs for employers abroad while increasing them locally.

In addition to these game-changing factors, the TPP is also likely to include limitations on "Buy America" and "Buy Local", as well as financial services deregulation that could threaten the economy as a whole and further water down environmental safety protections.      

The last full TPP negotiating round is taking place right now in Brunei Darussalam, and administration officials have announced a goal of completing the pact this year.  It is essential that our Congressmen and women and others oppose Fast Track for the TPP — an arcane, Nixon-era trade policy-making procedures that would allow the TPP to circumvent ordinary Congressional review, amendment and debate procedures, severely limiting our Congress members' ability to ensure that trade policies work for Illinois.  Call your Congressmen NOW at 202-224-3121 and tell them to vote NO.