The Three Industries That Love The TPP: Hollywood, Big Pharma & Wall St.

Politics

from the also:-three-big-funders-of-politicians dept

Mon, Nov 9th 2015 11:38am — Mike Masnick

Tons of people seem (quite rightly) concerned about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. As we pointed out last week after the final text was finally, released, the agreement has a lot of really big problems. But if you want to understand just how bad the agreement is, perhaps you should just look at the industries that like it. Vox notes that Big Pharma and Hollywood love the agreement while The Intercept notes that Wall Street loves it.

It should be noted that, actually, Big Pharma is apparently a bit disappointed that the TPP doesn't go far enough in locking up exclusivity for biologics.

That said, talk about three of the most hated industries around: Hollywood, Big Pharma and Wall Street. But, more importantly, talk about three of the most protectionist, anti-free trade industries around. We've been repeating over and over again that the TPP is not a free trade deal and this should be more confirmation. Hollywood, Big Pharma and Wall Street are probably three of the biggest industries to rely heavily on government regulations as a way to limit competition, limit innovation and to use that exclusivity to artificially increase prices at the expense of the public.

And they like the deal.

That's because it's not a free trade deal at all. It's not about "taking away" barriers to trade, it's about building bigger barriers in the form of protectionism to protect big, legacy industries from innovation and competition. Of course, it's no surprise that Hollywood, Big Pharma and Wall Street are also three of the most powerful lobbying industries in Washington DC, because when you can no longer innovate, and you rely on government protectionism, you focus your efforts on "political entrepreneurship" -- better known as getting the government to protect you from real entrepreneurship. So, no wonder the USTR went this direction. They only hear from these kinds of industries, and the end result is a fake free trade agreement that is designed to do the exact opposite. It's designed to build up barriers to protect old, stodgy industries who have relied on protection from competition from decades, and don't want to see that dissolve against foreign competition.

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Filed Under: big pharma, free trade, hollywood, protectionism, tpp, trade, ustr, wall street

22 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 12:25pm

Quick
name 3 Industries that are corrupt as much or moreso than the government...

Sadly Even Obama is bought and paid for, so much for that hope and change buddy!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 12:44pm

Re: Quick
Don't think Hillary is any different. She used to support the TPP but the only reason she is against it now is because she is running for office and she knows that the people don't like this bill. The fact that politicians tend to hold a different stance when running for office than when actually in office is almost an admission that they are very well aware that their stance in office is not representative of their constituents. Some democracy.

Hillary will either change her mind by the time she gets in office (or hope that the bill has passed by then so that she can claim she has no more say in the matter) or she will find another similar bill to support.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 1:01pm

I wonder what pathetic argument Whatever will try and come up with here to claim that IP laws and all of this was somehow done for the people. Just like how he pathetically tries to argue that the issue with Google and Spain is that no one can overcome the inconvenience of opting into or out of freely being in a search engine by checking a check box in a web development tool or changing a simple line in a robots.txt file while completely ignoring the fact that the IP extremists are trying to make it illegal to opt into freely being in a search engine.

"Oh, the corporations are so benevolent. These philanthropists only have your best interest in mind and they know what's best for you. You just have to trust them and to trust your elected and appointed officials to represent you in secrecy with industry interests invited because you voted for the elected ones. Just faithfully trust that the secrecy is in your own best interests and that elected and appointed officials with the industry interests responsible for negotiating the terms were only thinking about the public and that the current terms are best because government and industry knows best".

A would be parody if it weren't for the fact that shills have made similar arguments before.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 1:08pm

Re: Re: Quick
Senator Sanders - despite his other flaws - is consistent in both campaigning against bad trade deals and voting against them.

My personal hope is that with this 90 day window to a vote underway, the Sanders campaign/movement will mobilize opposition and that will boost his poll numbers. Clinton is feigning oppo to this deal but would never actively mobilize against it.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 1:10pm

Re:
Having slogged through the text myself, I can say that everything about TPP is overblown, including the doomsaying.

IT's not a good treaty, by any stretch fo the imagination. But the TPP makes it explicit in the text that companies who sue and lose are liable for punitive damages and costs. Moreover, the only way an ISDS dispute can be given any leeway is if there's a preponderance of evidence that suggests actual, provable discriminatory practices going on.

Once again - it's not a good treaty, by any stretch, and I believe that the benefits are way overblown. But all that means, is that we should be attacking on the actual negative parts (such as the locking up of patented research data, not just the patents).
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 1:14pm

Re: Re:
Except ISDS tribunals are not staffed by impartial judges. They are staffed by people who could forseeably be representing corporations in other ISDS cases. Massive conflict of interest!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 1:23pm

I wonder what effect a letter to your Congressman/Senator would have, if it included language along the lines of:

"The TPP is 6000 pages in length. Given the time allotted by law to review and debate the treaty, it simply is not possible for anyone to fully digest the material in order to meaningfully consider the treaty's effects. Therefore, you must vote against it. To do otherwise would be to allow the passage of something that you could not possibly have fully understood, and a person who would do that is not worthy of re-election."
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 3:01pm

Re: Re: Re:
Which is the angle that should be being attacked.

Note that I, personally, am not in favour of TPP or its European cousins.
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CharlieBrown, 9 Nov 2015 @ 3:19pm

Australian
the Australian government has made some commercials promoting how these trade agreements are good for the country and help us move forward. They have taken out TV advertising space to play these ads.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 3:36pm

Monsanto also loves it.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 3:41pm

Re:
Since corporations are people and the corporations lobbying for it love it then the people love it. It should be passed since doing so is representative of the people!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 5:18pm

Re: Re:
That might hold water if our judicial system were not corrupt.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 5:19pm

Re: Australian
Wow - what a good use of tax payer funding.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 5:21pm

Re: Re:
and when their bullshit corner cutting causes loss of life, they will certainly face jail time and possible death penalty ... because they are people my friend.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2015 @ 6:08pm

Re:
Americans, if you are writing to a Republican then make sure you refer to the TPP as OBAMATRADE.
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David, 10 Nov 2015 @ 1:30am

Re: Re:
A majority of people demonstrating against Obamacare, when asked if they'd rather see something like the Affordable Healthcare Act put in place, were quite in favor of it.

Small wonder as it was modelled after Massachusett's healthcare laws, also known as Romneycare.

So yes, denouncing TPP as Obamatrade or Hillarytrade to Republicans and, uh, Trumptrade (?) to Democrats is likely much more effective than arguing with the ugly facts.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Nov 2015 @ 3:46am

Hollywood, Big Pharma and Wall Street, oh my. It is such a relief to know who is really in charge. I will plan the rest of my life accordingly.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Nov 2015 @ 4:28am

Re: Quick
I keep reading that the Dems are in the back pocket of corporate America and yet the liberal media will have you believe only the Repubs are like this. What gives? Are you trying to tell me the Dems are bought and paid for too? Say it isn't so! This doesn't fit the narrative!

Or are libs finally waking up and realizing that the Dems are corporate puppets too, only with far worse fiscal, foreign and social policies?
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Nov 2015 @ 7:10am

Re: Re: Quick
Republicans:, "Rob the people!"
Democrats:, "Yes but equally!"

This has happened before in American history. Nothing is going to change until there is some trust busting. It isn't that your issue (whatever it is) isn't important. It is that your issue isn't even part of the debate. (regardless of the lipservice).

Reinstating Glass Steagall is the FIRST step. Writing a similar regulatory package separating telecom carriers from content providers is the second step. There are other similarly innocuous regulations that would free up new markets, and allow the middle class to recover. After that we can get back to bickering over abortion and guns and other diversionary issues.

It doesn't matter what party your in. There is only one candidate for POTUS who is even hinting at going in this direction.

And for those of you who need a sign from God, take this one: Apparently a Jewish carpenter CAN get elected to the Senate.
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Ryunosuke, 10 Nov 2015 @ 2:56pm

no no no.
you have it wrong, obama *IS* for hope and change, Hope for these companies, and pocket change for everyone else!
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Spartacus, 10 Nov 2015 @ 8:06pm

Re: Re: Quick
There is no side of politics anywhere in the developed world and the developing world which is not in the pockets of the multi nationals. This is the benefit/cost of being a capitalist society.
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IdPnSD, 12 Nov 2015 @ 8:34am

Money-less Economy (MLE)
"That's because it's not a free trade deal at all." How can it be a free deal? Money itself is false, because it is not an object of nature. How can you create something that is true using something that is false like money? Get rid of money. Money is not necessary to run an economy. There cannot be any need for anything false to run a real economy. Help instead to create a money-less economy. Take a look at https://theoryofsouls.wordpress.com/category/c-ch3-moneyless-economy/
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