I got an email today from Fight For The Future with this bit on news. Voting for whether or not to fast-track it is this Thursday, 06/11.
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Question: Are we supposed to pity BRICS?
Of course itâs a questionâŚ
I donât have an answer to this. It seems like a simple question, but:
Who are âweâ?
Supposed by whom?
In what sense would one pity BRICs?
Well, the wikileaks site contains this cartoon.
and this text
All parts of the trinity notably exclude the âBRICSâ countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
On the one hand, this is kind of obvious-- well, at least with China. One could argue that the entire purpose of the treaty is to counterbalance Chinaâs position as manufacturer of first resort-- a position, I might add, that is not synonymous with good environmental stewardship and fair labor practices,
Suppose China was on board. Would you really expect things to get better?
As for the rest of those countries-- itâs time to stop living your life according to Goldman Sachs
disclaimer - I havenât read the PDFs yet
There is certainly an exclusive/hegemonic angle to this. More immediate I think is the damage to whatever sovereignty its signatory countries could be said to have now. I see it as an economically motivated de-regulation which âhelpsâ the average person the same way that the Reagan/Thatcher approach did, except much worse, and on a nearly global scale. The market constraints make democratic handling of issues all but impossible.
I know. Letâs revisit the Doha round!
I care about whatâs in the treaty; not about which countries will be allowed to eat a shit sandwich
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I just started skimming these but Iâll go ahead and make a prediction of what I get the feeling this is all about:
Curbing Chinaâs growth is a no brainer, but there are probably two other things that they seem to be trying to accomplish.
Eliminating the possibility of independent global workers, and stopping India and Brazil from low balling everybody out of the competition.
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