The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is in trouble again and with any luck at all we’ll finally be able to drive a stake though its heart.
How A Feeble Joke At A Party Derailed Japan’s Ratification Of TPP At The Last Moment
by Glyn Moody, Tech Dirt
Thu, Nov 3rd 2016 11:24pm
(T)he US is not the only country that needs to ratify the deal: most of the other 11 countries participating need to do the same if it is to come into force. Because of the size of its economy, the critical one is Japan. But something rather strange has just happened: where it looked certain that country would ratify TPP this week, it has now been postponed.
More or less this is what happened according to a story in the Japan Times–
There was a party on October 18th thrown by the Chairman of the Japanese Diet Rules Committee which has basically the same functions as the Rules Committee on our House and Senate. Among other things they decide what Bills are brought before the Parliament for a vote, so it’s a very powerful Committee.
Also present at the party was the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Yamamoto and he got a little toasty (as in off your ass drunk which is not uncommon for high ranking Japanese Muckety Mucks) and said, “It’s up to Mr. Sato to decide whether to forcibly pass the [TPP] bill.”
Now it’s not the undemocratic nature of that comment that is the problem. The problem is that Mr. Sato, the Rules Chairman, was insulted by the implication that he had to do anything. He’s just as big a Muckety Muck as some pissant Agency flunky and he doesn’t have to do anything.
To continue-
As a result of Yamamoto’s ill-advised comment, the special committee tasked with TPP deliberations did not adopt the relevant bill. That, in its turn, meant the bill could not be sent to to the ruling coalition-controlled Lower House plenary session on Friday for a last-minute approval before the US election.
And why is that important? The Japan Times tells us it’s because the Japanese Government wanted to send a strong signal to the United States that they will not consider any changes to the proposed agreement to win U.S. Congressional support in the Lame Duck Session.
Remember, as Mark Weisbrot in The Hill tells us-
So it is looking like a very close vote. (For procedural and political reasons, Obama will not bring it to a vote unless he is sure he has the necessary votes). Now let’s look at one special group of Representatives who can swing this vote: the actual lame-ducks, i.e., those who will be in office only until Jan. 3. It depends partly on how many lose their election on Nov. 8, but the average number of representatives who left after the last three elections was about 80.
Most of these people will be looking for a job, preferably one that can pay them more than $1 million a year. From the data provided by OpenSecrets.org, we can estimate that about a quarter of these people will become lobbyists. (An additional number will work for firms that are clients of lobbyists).
So there you have it: It is all about corruption, and this is about as unadulterated as corruption gets in our hallowed democracy, other than literal cash under a literal table. These are the people whom Obama needs to pass this agreement, and the window between Nov. 9 and Jan. 3 is the only time that they are available to sell their votes to future employers without any personal political consequences whatsoever. The only time that the electorate can be rendered so completely irrelevant, if Obama can pull this off.
Right now it looks like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan don have the votes for passage (a simple majority without more concessions to the U.S. Tobacco and Pharma industries. Ironically by queering the pitch in the Diet Mr. Sato may have opened the door to furthur negotiations that might make a Lame Duck vote possible, even though the Japanese Government insists the deal is final.
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