Rockers launch tour to derail Pacific trade pact

Rockers led by Tom Morello on Wednesday announced a tour around the United States to derail the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade deal that would span Asia and the Americas.

President Barack Obama has made ratification of the pact, which would cover 40 percent of global GDP and include economic powerhouses such as Japan, a key priority in his final months in office.

But the Trans-Pacific Partnership faces strong political opposition, with both major candidates to succeed Obama criticizing the deal as it now stands.

The "Rock Against the TPP" tour will kick off Saturday in Denver and feature Morello, best known as the guitarist for leftist rockers Rage Against the Machine, as well as rapper Talib Kweli.

"People are already sick and tired of the stranglehold that corporations and the politicians who serve them have on our democracy," said Justin Sane, frontman of the activist punk band Anti-Flag which is also taking part in the tour.

"If it is approved, the TPP would hand them even more power to control and exploit us," he told reporters on a conference call.

The concert tour, which will also include outside protests and petitions to members of Congress, will later head to San Diego, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, with more shows in the works.

Critics including environmental groups say that the trade pact would scuttle hard-fought safety and privacy protections by giving corporations the power to use the courts to bulldoze past national laws.

Obama has insisted that the pact will offer strict labor and environmental guidelines and help shape the emerging order in Asia where China -- not a TPP nation -- has been flexing its muscle.

The trade deal had been a rare point of common ground between Obama and many of his rivals in the Republican Party but Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, the Republicans who lead the House of Representatives and Senate respectively, have both cast doubt on its passage this year.

Morello has also launched a new band called Prophets of Rage with Chuck D of hip-hop legends Public Enemy that has been protesting outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.