Guardian:  If Fast Track passes, TPP would be two weeks away

The TPP would criminalize your online activity, invade your privacy, and cost you money. And it may soon become a reality. Article by Shalailah Medora for The Guardian The US Congress could soon pass legislation to fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which may result in the 12-nation trade deal being passed within a fortnight. President Barack Obama needs the Trade Promotion Authority to fast-track trade talks between TPP nations, which account for nearly 40% of the global economy. Australia is one of those nations.

The TPP would criminalize your online activity, invade your privacy, and cost you money. And it may soon become a reality.

Article by Shalailah Medora for The Guardian

The US Congress could soon pass legislation to fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which may result in the 12-nation trade deal being passed within a fortnight.

President Barack Obama needs the Trade Promotion Authority to fast-track trade talks between TPP nations, which account for nearly 40% of the global economy. Australia is one of those nations.

Trade Promotion Authority would give the president the power to negotiate an agreement that Congress would then be able to approve or block, but not amend.

In a surprising development, the president has the support of his Republican opponents in granting the authority, but faces opposition from Democrats.

A procedural vote on the Trade Promotion Authority was narrowly blocked in the Senate by Democrats last week, despite Obama making it one the centrepieces of his presidency.

The head of the Influential Ways and Means Committee, Republican Paul Ryan, said Obama now has the congressional votes to win the debate, with US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell saying that would happen by the end of this week.

“These sorts of sentiments are now starting to pervade the hill in Washington, and if that’s true it would pave the way to possibly conclude negotiations by all 12 countries in the following fortnight,” the Australian trade minister, Andrew Robb, told ABC Radio on Monday.

- Read more at The Guardian