Isherwood: NO to free trade TPP; YES to cooperation with China on maritime "Silk Road"
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Citizens Electoral Council of Australia

Media Release  Thursday, 10 October 2013

Craig Isherwood‚ National Secretary
PO Box 376‚ COBURG‚ VIC 3058
Phone: 1800 636 432
Email: cec@cecaust.com.au
Website: http://cec.cecaust.com.au
 

Isherwood: NO to free trade TPP; YES to cooperation with China on maritime ‘Silk Road’

New Prime Minister Tony Abbott was confronted with two opposing agendas at this week’s Bali APEC Summit:

  • Barack Obama’s insidious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade snare for the Asia-Pacific, which will strip national governments of all rights and put them under the heel of the private power of multinational corporations;
  • An offer from China for regional economic cooperation around the grand infrastructure development perspective China calls the “New Silk Road”, and which China’s new president just expanded to a “maritime Silk Road”.

When Prime Minister Abbott met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bali 6 October, ahead of the APEC summit, both leaders affirmed the importance of strengthening Australian-Chinese cooperation.

However, Abbott then declared his government’s support for the free trade TPP, which The Australian on 7 October tellingly described as “a key economic element of the US ‘pivot’ to the Asia-Pacific region”. Obama’s so-called “pivot” is a hostile military and diplomatic “containment” of China, which in reality is a dangerous fuse for a thermonuclear world war.

What on earth is Abbott getting Australia into?

China, which is not part of the TPP, has voiced serious objections, as have two countries which are included, Vietnam and Malaysia, objections echoed by former Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. A reputable U.S. blogger, Jim Hightower, has exposed the little-known details of the TPP, including its overall intention to establish a supra-national imperial dictatorship governed by non-elected corporate/banking interests and overseen by a supra-national court responsible to no nation.

Hightower points out that the TPP would prohibit national governments from taking necessary steps to protect their citizens from corporate abuses, and he singles out the much-needed restoration of a Glass-Steagall banking separation to protect depositors as something that TPP would stop:

“The deal explicitly prohibits transaction taxes … it restricts “firewall” reforms that separate consumer banking from risky investment banking (thus prohibiting Congress from reinstating the much needed Glass-Steagall firewall in our country); … These extreme provisions would be enforceable by the banks themselves—TPP empowers them to force governments either to repeal reform laws or to compensate banks with taxpayer money for “losses” they say are caused by reforms.”

(Click here for a detailed listing of the sovereign rights that the TPP will strip away from national government.)

Peace through cooperative economic development

In stark contrast to the TPP, on 13 September at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Leaders’ Summit Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated his call for a “New Silk Road”. He underlined the necessity for economic cooperation among nations in order to beat the global depression and to confront the three evils of terrorism, separatism, and extremism.

President Xi spoke about unleashing the traditional “Shanghai Spirit” of cooperation to establish a grid of transportation and communication in the region, a trade and investment facilitation treaty, an SCO “credit window” to facilitate trade, an SCO development bank for infrastructure projects, and development of energy and food security.

In the lead-up to the APEC forum President Xi gave an interview to Indonesian and Malaysian media in which he called for the creation of “an investment and financing platform for infrastructure development”. Further, speaking to the Indonesian Parliament on 3 October, President Xi called for a “maritime Silk Road”, in addition to the terrestrial Silk Road. He expressed China’s desire to “vigorously develop maritime partnership in a joint effort to build the Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century. China is ready to expand its practical cooperation with ASEAN countries across the board, supplying each other’s needs and complementing each other’s strengths, with a view to jointly seizing opportunities and meeting challenges for the benefit of common development and prosperity.”

President Xi’s proposals perfectly complement the Citizens Electoral Council’s 2002 blueprint for Australian development called the Infrastructure Road to Recovery. This program includes such visionary, nation-building projects as the late Professor Lance Endersbee’s Asian Express, a high-speed rail transportation corridor from Melbourne to Darwin that would connect with high-speed shipping, to place any part of Australia just one to four days from any part of Asia, including the world’s two largest ports, in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Commenting on the Bali developments, CEC leader Craig Isherwood denounced the TPP, and endorsed China’s economic development approach. “The Abbott government should immediately seize upon the potential for such cooperation with China and our other Asian neighbours,” Isherwood said. “We need grand and visionary projects, and a credit system as suggested by President Xi, to fund them. It all begins with the fight the CEC is leading to stop the Australian government from legislating Cyprus-style ‘bail-in’ powers that will steal from depositors to prop up banks, and instead force Parliament to protect depositors by implementing a Glass-Steagall separation of deposit-holding commercial banks from reckless and predatory investment banks.

“We must wipe out the power of the bankers and get on with the business of real development! Once we do, we’ll have many partners in Asia willing to collaborate with us. This is worth fighting for—join us!

For more on the CEC’s infrastructure proposals, click here for a free copy of our Infrastructure Road to Recovery special report.

If you have already received a free offer, click here to purchase a copy our Infrastructure Road to Recovery special report ($10).

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