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Source: USW

Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa wrote the following opinion piece in the Huffington Post:
The looming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is potentially the biggest so-called “free trade” agreement in the world. And you’ve probably never heard about it.
TPP negotiations are being held in secret. Right now. Behind closed doors. Even the U.S. Congress, which is granted sole authority under the Constitution to debate and approve trade deals, has been cut out. But big business has a giant seat at the negotiating table.
And Congress is inching toward considering approval of the trade deal on a straight, up-or-down vote. If that happens, lawmakers would be giving away their ability to amend the agreement once negotiators, with the heavy-handed influence of corporations, agree to it. Approval of “fast-track” authority would also limit debate on the deal and keep many of its details shrouded in secrecy until it is too late.
There’s a lot to lose under fast track. American jobs could be put at risk and shipped overseas to nations such as Vietnam, which pays its workers unfair wages to toil in unsafe factories. Recently, 167 House members sent a letter to...

Source: The Gazette-Mail

Source: Boston Herald