"Is the TPP Okay With Slavery? Really?" 28 May 2015

So the fast track plan to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership has run into a new wrinkle after an amendment passed in the Senate debate: slavery...[T]he Senate voted for an amendment that would make it more difficult for countries that engage in slavery to be in the TPP, and the Obama administration objected...The President does not want an anti-slavery provision in what he calls the "most progressive trade deal of all time" because it would keep a country noted for its egregious slave trade out of the treaty?...We're not going to object to slavery because a country that openly engages in it might trade more with China than with us?...We have imposed trade embargoes on all kinds of countries...for all kinds of reasons...Our country's values, beyond just the value of a dollar, should be represented in our...trade agreements...[They] should be enforced. And...the TPP should not be entered into if we have to ignore issues like slavery...It is time to start paying attention to something beyond the rights of multinational companies...