The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
Mike Robinson, Brian Gerrish, Alex Thomson, Patrick Henningsen and Mark Anderson discuss the main stories of 2017, and take a look at the year ahead.
Read about the engineered migrant crisis (below this article):
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– ObamaTrade Is Dead: White House Abandons TPP As EU Halts Trade Talks After Trump Victory:
It appears the entire ‘ObamaTrade’ farce is collapsing under the weight of its secrecy and corporatocracy in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s triumph. First this morning, Bloomberg reported that EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said EU-U.S. negotiations on a free-trade agreement are on hold, and now WSJ reports that the Obama administration on Friday gave up all hope of enacting its sweeping Pacific trade agreement, denting American prestige in the regions at a time when China is flexing its economic and military muscle.
Just days after Donald Trump won the election, all of Washington’s major trade deals are dead or dying.
Read moreObamaTrade Is Dead: White House Abandons TPP As EU Halts Trade Talks After Trump Victory
“A rose (or in this arse a poison) by any othe name is still a rose.
Anyone who thinks the people’s will is respected by the PTB and their Global Corporate leeches, whose only aim is profit at the expense of the worker, is a blinkered idiot.
If Brexit, the TTIP, or TPTA are really doomed as the people think, I believe in fairies.”
Over the weekend, thousands of protesters across multiple countries condemned impending trade deals promoted by governments and their corporate partners.
Though the protests received little coverage from mainstream media, they stretched from Paris to Warsaw.
The demonstrations came amid the Commission on International Trade of the European Parliament’s plans to finalize the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) this week. The policy has been likened to so-called “free trade” deals pushed by President Barack Obama and other Western governments.
Read moreMedia Silent as Anti-Corporate Trade Deal Protests Take Europe by Storm
– 300,000 Join Massive Protests in Germany Against US-EU Corporate Trade Deals:
“CETA and TTIP trade deals threaten environmental and consumer protection for millions of people in Europe, and North America.”
(COMMONDREAMS) Hundreds of thousands took to city streets across Germany on Saturday as they marched against a pair of corporate-backed trade deals they say will undermine democracy, attack workers and local economies, and accelerate the threats posed by corporate hegemony and global warming.
Taking aim at both the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), European Union deals with the United States and Canada respectively, opponents say the agreements are not really concerned with expanding trade but rather increasing corporate power.
Read more300,000 Join Massive Protests in Germany Against US-EU Corporate Trade Deals
H/t reader squodgy:
“Just like the Brexit. Can we really trust those with their noses in the troughs to actually accept and honour the will of the people????
Of course not.”
The global mainstream media have loudly hailed the stunning success of the peoples uprising against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or TTIP in the light of its demise. In the last few years protests broke out all over Europe as the unelected bureaucrats steamed ahead with this unpopular trade deal, even after the results of the largest ever consultation study in the EU Commission’s history resulted in a 97% negative response of 150,000 people.
The emerging movement spawned enormous online activism never seen before, culminating in the largest petition in Europe’s history with a staggering collective of over 3.2 million signatures delivered by passionate foot-soldiers right to the epicentre of where the political elite inhabit in the EU. The beating heart of TTIP activism was Berlin, Paris and London. This is not to forget the huge protest effort made by citizens across almost all of the EU’s major cities.
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FYI.
– US Faces Major Setback As Europeans Revolt Against TTIP:
France wants to halt thorny EU-US trade talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) as President Francois Hollande underlined there would be no deal until after President Barack Obama leaves office in January. Matthias Fekl, the French minister for foreign trade, has said his country will call for an end to the deal. France has been sceptical about the TTIP from the start and has threatened to block the deal, arguing the US has offered little in return for concessions made by Europe. All 28 EU member states and the European parliament will have to ratify the TTIP before it comes into force.
The statements came just a couple of days after German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel had said talks for TTIP had de facto failed. Gabriel, who leads Germany’s centre-left Social Democratic party and is vice-chancellor in the coalition government, said Europe mustn’t submit to the American proposals. Mr. Gabriel’s statement is in contrast with the position of Chancellor Angela Merkel who supports the deal. Meanwhile, the US-German conflicts are growing. US courts and authorities took a hard line against the Volkswagen Group, Germany’s largest car manufacturer, in relation to its exhaust scandal. In a deal that does not include all damage claims, VW is required to pay up to 13.6 billion euros. There is a growing chorus in Germany
Read moreUS Faces Major Setback As Europeans Revolt Against TTIP
– “The Americans Give Us Nothing”: France Effectively Kills TTIP, Calls For End To Negotiations:
Just two days after Germany’s outspoken vice chancellor (who has over the past 48 hours slammed not just Merkel’s refugee policy but also Brexit negotiation demands), announced that Obama’s transatlantic trade treaty, the TTIP, is dead, saying negotiations have failed because “we Europeans did not want to subject ourselves to American demands”, France voiced its support to the German position when the French trade minister on Tuesday called for an end to trade negotiations between the European Union and the U.S., the firmest sign yet of opposition in Europe to what would be the most ambitious trade deal in decades.
Matthias Fekl, cited by the WSJ, said on French radio that “France no longer politically supports these negotiations,” adding that “The Americans are giving us nothing. This is not how allies should be negotiating.” Fekl said he would ask the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, at a meeting of trade ministers late September to end negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, generally known as TTIP. The Commission leads talks with the U.S. for the EU.
