The TPP

Finally, Monsanto gets a break. They've earned it with all the good they are doing.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-to-know-about-the-trans-pacific-partnership/

This is old news. And you have to steer clear of the alarmists sites, because much of the deal is completely being made in secrecy. In all honesty, no one knows all the details, except for the officials involved in the negotiation. The goal has very little to do with Monsanto, and GMO Free USA is an ignorant group of scientific illiterate fear mongers (many of them believe in the chemtrail hoax). It is just a free trade agreement, which is targeted at making the US more competitive against countries like China. There has been some questionable stuff leaked about it, but that is mostly related to IP (stronger copyright laws). There also some positive aspects, like pushing Asian countries to adopt higher labor standards. This could also lead to improved emissions regulations across Asia, though I know many of you think climate change is just a hoax. Anyway, if you have been lightly following this for the last year or so, you will see that it still has a long way to go before being signed into effect. This deal has to have libertarians' brains melting. They love the idea of free market and free trade, but probably hate the stricter laws that will come along with it. If you don't want this to happen, don't vote Republican. From what I have seen, they tend to be on the side of fast-tracking it. The left seems to have the only key opposition. Personally, I am torn on the subject. I like the idea of better labor conditions and stricter emission limits for the environment, but I dislike the IP strangle hold. It probably won't get signed, since it is just the new NAFTA.

 

http://www.academia.edu/5770807/The...the_Asia_Pacific_particularly_the_Philippines

Economic research paper on the topic. It is hard to beat China when you don't play by the same rules.

 

Might be time to buy more Monsanto stocks.
What is good for Monsanto, is good for stock holders.
Long live capitalism!!!

 

It is just a trade agreement.
"Modern trade agreements"

It isn't an old school trade agreement, it is part of the new era of trade agreements. These agreements have always affected millions of people, and that is what they are for (generally to improve our competitive edge in the global market, thus helping the domestic economy). Your comments make me think you don't know much about trade agreements, because they are never open to the public. The public shouldn't get to have a say in it, because that opens it up to much more corporate influence. If we just keep doing business the old way, we will never be competitive against the Chinese. While I don't think the IPP is the answer, it is a shining example of what we are facing in the global market. This ain't our first rodeo. You really need to do a little more research into modern trade agreements and how they are created. A good start would be an agreement that we have already signed: NAFTA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement

 

I love how Monsanto specifically gets demonized in every situation, while they don't even hold the biggest piece of the GMO seed market. I never hear anyone go after Bayer, who basically makes about 20% of all pesticides used (Monsanto only makes half of that).

 

Yup, and all the while, they sit there eating the products, produced as a result of those companies, which have contributed to keeping their butts alive.
Companies aren't perfect. But the idea that they sit around boardrooms trying to design products to hurt others, is absolutely imbecilic. I worked for a large company for 30 years. Some of the stuff they were accused of was absolutely looney tunes. They were not perfect, made mistakes, but never tried to hurt others.

 

gotta agree with Hanna and to a degree chicharrone on this
Brew just takes the path of least resistance and spouts the talking points from these companies

he assumes if swell info is against it, it must be a witchhunt

very little critical thinking going on there, just toeing the line instead of digging deeper

an engineer he is, a critical thinking researcher he is not

and chich, that Rat study (in france) was flawed, but you will never see an honest large data set looking at this

brew thinks science ignores money, he lives with rose colored glasses stapled to his face

 

How many trade agreements were not done in secrecy? Nothing you posted proves what I wrote to be wrong. Ad-hominem. Want to try that again in a way that actually makes some point about the topic?

Makeitstop thinks the world is out to kill him and anarchy is the only way to live. See how fun that is?

 

I am sure you, with your hours of google research, know better that the numerous PhD researchers involved in that study.
http://www.nature.com/news/study-linking-gm-maize-to-rat-tumours-is-retracted-1.14268

But no, you guys have it all figured out. No one has ever studied GMO risks in depth. Oh wait... http://genera.biofortified.org/viewall.php

 

ISIS thinks so.
if you're posting photos/personal info etc. online - DON'T!
or, if you must, do so ficticiously.
they are building a data base - from social media - to use against us.
theres' no upside to this.

 

One "well-placed" nuke resolves the whole problem. And it can even be a smaller one. Right into the area where al-bagdhadi lives. Game over, we win.

 

I am babbling? Maybe because you didn't read what I wrote. I am not pro fast tracking, and even said the republican party is the one pushing (thus voting for them could be a bad decision).

"most of the countries in the TPP already have comparable standards of livings to ours."
No, they don't. They have no where near the labor laws and rights that we do. http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/article...lm-oil-industry-rife-with-human-rights-abuses
That took half a second to research.

"what does that mean?"
Exactly what I said. If all negotiations are public, corporations can see exactly what is being discussed and use lobbying to influence it. Aside from that, straight from the AU trade minister: "It is normal practice in trade negotiations to keep negotiating text confidential until an agreement is completed as this facilitates candid and productive negotiations and negotiating text is dynamic and often does not provide an accurate picture of the state of negotiations," The text is dynamic and often changes. Goes back to my original point that no one outside the group negotiating it actually knows what all is in the agreement.

what's a "shining example of what we are facing""? again, what does that even mean?
If you had read both my posts, you would understand. China is kicking arse in the global market, and we need new ways of doing business in order to compete. It isn't the same world today as it was 10-20 years ago. I work for one of the European owned global leaders in the automotive industry. We are investing billions into the Asian market, all because of the current Chinese industrial revolution. China doesn't play by the same rules as US and EU, so we are trying to find better ways to compete. Free trade is just one of the tricks we have left.

draconian IP laws have already decimated the public domain and the concept of fair use. if you understand the point of copyright, then you should understand that the TPP will actually harm innovation by strengthening IP laws to the benefit of legacy business models.
I told you I am not happy about the IP leaks I have read online. However, Asia has gotten ahead by stealing IP on a massive scale, so something has to be done. I am an inventor on a patent. I can't even fully explain all that went into obtaining that patent. Money, time, legal argument, etc... it isn't easy. To do all that work, then watch the product copied/stolen by some random corp. in Asian, is just sickening. Hell, my current company blocks all the Asian divisions from most of the core confidential research. They have been burned to many times, so they can't even trust their own workers in specific countries. I am not saying this excuses the TPP to do whatever they want, but I can see some of the reasoning behind it.

the TPP is inherently anti-consumer. why do you think this is a good thing?
I don't think you or I know enough of what will be in the TPP to make this claim. I have already stated I will remain neutral on it, just because I don't know enough about it. No one outside the official negotiating it actually knows much about it. Personally, I wish we didn't need it. Unfortunately, we need something. This is what it looks like out there: