from the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
As trade ministers gather in Auckland, New Zealand to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, U.S. faith-based organizations expressed opposition to the agreement. The Interfaith Working Group on Trade and Investment has worked since 2000 to bring to the trade debate the experiences of people of faith in mission and in service with vulnerable communities around the world.
Kathryn Johnson, policy impact coordinator with the American Friends Service Committee, said: “It’s little wonder that the TPP is practically an investor wish list. Over 600 corporate advisors participated in the negotiations shaping the agreement to benefit themselves while the public was kept in the dark. This pact put corporations firmly in the driver’s seat shaping health, environmental and economic policies around the globe. It also allows investors to bypass a country’s judicial system to challenge environmental and public health laws.”
Scott Wright, director of the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach, said: “Columban missionaries live and serve in six of the twelve countries participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). We know from past experience that free trade agreements tend to favor the interests of transnational corporations over the needs of the poor and the environment. Based on this firsthand knowledge, we know the TPP is not in the best interests of the communities we serve. The global economy must work in service to the people, not threaten their human dignity or destroy our common home.”…