The full text of the recently completed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) international trade deal was finally released Thursday, providing the first detailed look into the secretive landmark accord aimed at removing barriers to commerce in 40 percent of the world's economy, reported The Guardian.
Five years after negotiations first began and exactly one month after they concluded, the U.S. Trade Representative's office has made the full text of the controversial 12-nation agreement available here.
It includes 30 chapters and more than 2,000 pages, which will now be subject to at least 90 days of intense scrutiny by lawmakers and activists before President Barack Obama can sign the agreement between the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.
The deal makes it cheaper to import and export by knocking down tariffs and import quotas, opening new Asia-Pacific markets, according to CNN. The Obama administration says that the deal does away with 18,000 taxes that countries impose on U.S. exports, adds labor protections including the right to form unions, includes benefits for U.S. agriculture and sets common standards for intellectual property protection in the 12 Pacific nations.
The U.S. Congress is expected to to take up the deal next year, though they are only allowed to cast up or down votes and cannot introduce amendments or filibuster. The TPP must also be signed and ratified by the other countries.
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that he is reserving judgment while he reviews the details of the agreement.
"I look forward to reviewing the details of the agreement that was released today," Ryan said in a statement, reported NBC News. "Enactment of TPP is going to require the administration to fully explain the benefits of this agreement and what it will mean for American families. I continue to reserve judgment on the path ahead."
Notable opponents of the deal include Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and Republican hopeful Donald Trump.
Some opponents say that the deal is less about fair trade, and more about consolidation of power, voicing concern over a number of issues, including pharmaceutical monopolies, food safety, environmental and health protections, offshoring of jobs, Internet privacy, government transparency, currency manipulation and giveaways to powerful business lobbies, according to RT.
Upon reviewing the final text, Nick Dearden, executive director of Global Justice Now, said, "The TPP is a disaster for jobs, and environment and our democracy. It is the latest stage in the corporate capture of our society," reported Common Dreams.
The deal "has less to do with selling more goods, than with rewriting the rules of the global economy is favor of big business. Like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 20 years ago, it will be very good for the very richest, and a disaster for everything and everyone else. NAFTA entrenched inequality and caused massive job losses in the USA, and TPP is turbo-charged NAFTA."
The Sierra Club, an environmental group, said that the TPP would threaten the environment, the health of communities and global climate.
"We now have concrete evidence that the Trans-Pacific Partnership threatens our families, our communities, and our environment," said Michael Brune, the group's executive director. "It's no surprise that the deal is rife with polluter giveaways that would undermine decades of environmental progress, threaten our climate, and fail to adequately protect wildlife because big polluters helped write the deal."
