This week on Air Occupy: in-depth discussion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, with Melinda St. Louis, International Campaigns Director with Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.  Melinda works with international allies to roll back WTO financial deregulation and to stop expansion of harmful trade agreements, including the TPP. 

What is the TPP?  The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a massive new trade and investment agreement that is being negotiated between the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam with options for countries such as Korea, Thailand, and China to join over time. 

The 16th Round of Negotiations begins in Singapore this week, and like the other rounds of negotiations, the public is being kept in the dark about what is taking place behind closed doors while 600 corporate lobbyists are privy to the talks and negotiating texts. 

The TPP would spark a global "race to the bottom" for corporations to find the cheapest labor, lax environmental standards, de-regulated financial markets, stringent drug patents preventing access to affordable generics, and lower food safety standards.