Readers React: If the TPP is so necessary, why the secrecy?

To the editor: Dan Schnur’s attack on the opponents of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal doesn’t make much of an argument for the agreement itself. The only factual point he makes related to it — that California is awash in Pacific Rim trade — undermines the position that there’s a need for the further concessions contained in the TPP. (“Opposing the TPP makes no sense in California,” op-ed, May 25)

California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana), who are both running for Barbara Boxer’s U.S. Senate seat, are doing the jobs they were elected to do: protecting workers, consumers and the environment.

Perhaps Schnur missed The Times’ multi-part series last year on how Mexican farmworkers are practically enslaved. Perhaps he isn’t aware of Latin American workers who are paid as little as $10 a day and some Asian workers even less, and how the North American Free Trade Agreement compromises environmental protection laws.

New trade agreements may make sense, but only with adequate protections and thorough debate of the terms.

Steve Offerman, Ventura

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