The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal championed by Obama is filled with nasty provisions and is opposed by other countries, and within the US too. It would enshrine nasty restrictive copyright and DRM rules, something which primarily benefits Hollywood, who I’m sure are ponying up big campaign ‘contributions’ to get this turd of a trade plan enacted. However, other countries see nothing in the plan that benefits them. Obama wanted Fast Track Authority on it so he wouldn’t have to deal with a pesky Congress. However, Congress is steadfastly refusing to grant the authority.
The Obama administration only has itself to blame for this mess. By listening to corporate demands above all else, it has alienated itself from its own political party, public interest groups, and most of all, the people whose interests it is supposedly meant to represent. Unless the U.S. trade rep radically changes its approach to this agreement—to make the negotiations truly transparent and incorporate substantive input from the public, for starters—it seems the President is going to be stuck defending a bad deal and a bad process. As long as the TPP remains a secretive process driven entirely by narrow interests, we’ll do everything we can to make sure it goes nowhere