Reflections from Crumbly Acres: tpp

Friday, 26 January 2018

Coal mining, lies, obfuscation

Oxymorons, such as 'Clean Coal' are accepted by some. Like agriculture, mechanization has profoundly changed many fields, 'scuse the pun. Outsourcing has reduced work on this continent. This is why TPP and NAFTA are so important. Find a speciality, create the goods. MAGA doesn't work in this day and age.

Sadly, Trump is much concerned with what he calls trade imbalances. Truth is, our Canadian population is a fraction of the US, 36 million to 323 million. It makes more sense to trade goods, without a tariff, on the western part of the continent, across the border, and the same on the eastern coasts.

Hubby was reading some data in The Economist.

YEAR
1920 –785,000 coal miners in the USA.
2012 – it dropped to 90,000 miners.
2017 –50,000 miners in the USA.

1980 –Mines produced 1.9 tons per miner hour,
2017 –Mines can produce 6.3 tons per miner hour, 3x's more efficient!

"Some of Europe’s last remaining coal producers, in the Czech Republic, Romania and Poland, are grasping for government support to keep from going under and taking thousands of jobs with them.
Talks in Prague and Bucharest this week coincide with the news that the world’s largest private coal company, Peabody Energy, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S."

“Coal power was a part of our past...Our prosperity now depends on our ability to move forward with a clean energy future.” https://t.co/RrfxTrFdwk
— Energiewende Germany (@EnergiewendeGER) January 5, 2018

THE TRUTH ABOUT JOBS: Clean Energy Creates WAY More Jobs Than Dirty Fossil Fuels Like Oil, Coal, Oil Sands & Gas #WEF18 #climatechange #Davos pic.twitter.com/iizypA3b2e
— Jim Harris @ #WEF18 (@JimHarris) January 25, 2018

With Trump making a speech at Davos today, I wonder if it'll be the same old, same old!

Trump on the Affordable Healthcare Act: "You pay NOT to have insurance." No, you pay into a pot, to ensure that if you need it it will be there for you, just like life insurance.
Yet, 13 million will lose health insurance with his legislation.

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

What do you know about the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)?

‏@ExposeTPP

I didn't. I did some research. I'm trying to relax! I like research.

It is a secretive deal, rumoured to have an impact on Canadian dairy farmers, pharmaceutical access, automobile production.
We know how the safety of Canadians has been impacted by outsourcing.
We know how Canadians have been put out of work through outsourcing.
We know how overseas products can be contaminated.
We know how shoddy goods proliferate the market.
We know how frustrating it is to deal with IT support based in another country, where English is not spoken well by its employees.

Dairy farmers, from both Ontario and Quebec, have begun a protest. I don't blame them. Small farms, family farms, farms feed cities. It's shameful what this government is doing.

Quebec dairy farmers panicked over Trans-Pacific deal - CBC

Sept. 26th - Quebec dairy farmer Réal Gauthier says the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal may make him reconsider whether it's worth it to continue...

They worry about intellectual property laws.

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement | Electronic Frontier ...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secretive, multinational trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws across the...

What worries me most is the secrecy around it. Of course, one doesn't negotiate in public, yet this is an aspect of the economy that affects employees, employers, consumers, farmers, and yet the government thinks this is a good deal.

The Macleans article is worrisome:

"The battle over automobile production could be epic.

If all goes according to plan, the government will reveal details later this week of the Trans-Pacific Partnership at briefings in three different cities: Atlanta, Ottawa, and Montreal, which is hosting Friday’s French-language election debate. Should the negotiations in Georgia conclude successfully, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will take to the stage heralding a new free-trade deal covering 40 per cent of the global economy."

Harper Conservatives hope to have TPP agreement this ...

Sept. 28th - If all goes according to plan, the government will reveal details later this week of the Trans-Pacific Partnership at briefings in three different cities.

Doctors Without Borders has been trying to raise this issue for months and we need to listen to the experts.
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/.../trading-away...