This Transatlantic Trade Deal is a Full-Frontal Assault on Democracy

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/11/05-3


David Cameron with Barack Obama at a state dinner in Cameron's honour in 2012 at the White House. (Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

Remember that referendum about whether we should create a single market with the United States? You know, the one that asked whether corporations should have the power to strike down our laws? No, I don't either. Mind you, I spent 10 minutes looking for my watch the other day before I realised I was wearing it. Forgetting about the referendum is another sign of ageing. Because there must have been one, mustn't there? After all that agonising over whether or not we should stay in the European Union, the government wouldn't cede our sovereignty to some shadowy, undemocratic body without consulting us. Would it?

The purpose of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is to remove the regulatory differences between the US and European nations. I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. But I left out the most important issue: the remarkable ability it would grant big business to sue the living daylights out of governments which try to defend their citizens. It would allow a secretive panel of corporate lawyers to overrule the will of parliament and destroy our legal protections. Yet the defenders of our sovereignty say nothing.

The mechanism through which this is achieved is known as investor-state dispute settlement. It's already being used in many parts of the world to kill regulations protecting people and the living planet.

The Australian government, after massive debates in and out of parliament, decided that cigarettes should be sold in plain packets, marked only with shocking health warnings. The decision was validated by the Australian supreme court. But, using a trade agreement Australia struck with Hong Kong, the tobacco company Philip Morris has asked an offshore tribunal to award it a vast sum in compensation for the loss of what it calls its intellectual property.

[xchrom]

1. The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Trade Agreement for Protectionists

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/the-trans-pacific-partnership-a-trade-agreement-for-protectionists

***SNIP

There are many other areas where we could envision freer trade bringing real gains to the bulk of the population. However this is not what the TPP is about. The TPP is about crafting rules that will favor big business at the expense of the rest of the population in both the United States and in other countries.

For example, we can expect to see limits on the ability of national and sub-national governments to impose environmental restrictions, such requirements that companies engaging in fracking disclose the list of chemicals they use. There may also be limits on the extent to which governments can restrict the sale of genetically modified foods, with rules on labeling. And, the TPP may prevent governments from imposing restraints on financial firms that would prevent the sort of abuses that we saw during the run-up of the housing bubble.

The world has benefited from the opening of trade over the last four decades. But this opening has been selective so that, at least in the United States, most of the gains have gone to those at the top. It is possible to design trade deals that benefit the population as a whole, but not when corporate interests are literally the negotiators at the table. Rather than being about advancing free trade, the TPP is the answer to the question: “how can we make the rich richer?

[newfie11]

2. K&R. Nt

[octoberlib]

3. k&R

[abelenkpe]

4. K&R

[woo me with science]

5. The replacement of democratic govts. with corporate fascism.

The process is relentless, deliberate, and bipartisan.

Had enough yet, America? Because they have been building an impressive police state for when you finally do.

[xchrom]

6. +1 -- what the police did to OWS protestors was a lovely little preview. nt

[whathehell]

9. That appears to be exactly what it is..

but it's not just America it's being aimed at -- They've got another similar, if not identical

so-called "trade deal" for Europe.

[zeemike]

18. +1. and K&R for the OP

And I wonder how long it will be before this is alerted on.

[bluedeathray]

34. Quite Impressive...

Second amendment be damned. After the Fascists have killed most of the wolves, the sheep will fall into line.

The intelligence gathering, the secret treaties, the militarization of police, the constitutional abuses...

[marmar]

7. It's coming at us from both oceans.

k/r

[xchrom]

8. indeed. nt

[ReRe]

10. It's GLOBAL

[antigop]

11. Hillary Clinton's Business Legacy at State Department (leading part in drafting TPP)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101667554

[L0oniX]

20. The Clintons are corporate ratfuckers. I'll never vote for Hillary.

[boomersense]

23. With TPP, I can't either. We are going to leave the

country if it passes. Hopefully, smaller countries will not feel the screws for a while and my wife and I will be dead by the time the stalags open.

[riderinthestorm]

12. Big K&R! nt

[Chan790]

13. No on TTIP! No on TPP! No "investor-state dispute settlement" mechanisms.

The state has the authority to regulate corporations; the corporations have the right to honor those regulations or fuck off and sell their product elsewhere.

That's the appropriate dispute settlement mechanism between governments and corporations.

I'm in favor of killing Free Trade because I am a sane person. FTAs are insane.

[boomersense]

14. It ends Democracy, and if you have money in a bank, you'd

better figure out a place to put it. TTP and the law, if passed, regarding derivatives being kept with bank deposits for purposes of recovery will enable the MIC to virtually strip you of every thing you own. This has long been the plan, and the plan is succeeding. There used to be a way of handling such things... But not now.

[awoke_in_2003]

15. Not Anothet Free Trade Agreement. nt

[watoos]

16. I read somewhere

that an African trade deal is in the works.

[G_j]

17. No!

but it doesn't matter what you or I say.

[daleanime]

19. K&R....

[L0oniX]

21. They had to take over our government first. Now they are taking over all governments.

This is what happens when people vote for rich people.

[One_Life_To_Give]

22. Sounds simple on paper

Till you get into technical details like you can't design a fuse to meet both IEC127 (European requirement) and meet Underwriters Laboratories requirements for Listing (ANSI/UL248?). Or that the Flame Retardants required to meet US/Canadian Wiring Codes are not allowed under European Harmonized Limits for Low Smoke/Halogen Content in wire and cable. And of course our compliance enforcement mechanisms are different. And I find it difficult to imagine either allowing Wire Nuts in Europe or banning them in North America.

[leftstreet]

24. DURec

[KoKo]

25. Hitting on all fronts with these Trade Agreements. It's an assault!

:kick:

[liberal_at_heart]

26. We desperately need a president who will fight corporations, not cater to them.

[bvar22]

27. Worth repeating:

[font size=3]"We desperately need a president who will fight corporations, not cater to them."[/font]

[Enthusiast]

29. You will never get a president like that.

The game is already over. They control the entire media, except for a tiny smidgen of the internet. And they have full intentions of capturing that tiny bit.

If the Democrats would understand that we do not want another corporate president (Hillary) and allow an alternative, the media would attack the alternative unmercifully. Our candidate would not have a chance.

We desperately needed a president that would fight corporations in 2008.

[TBF]

30. What you need is to get rid of capitalism -

when every incentive rewards those with money (and those willing to do whatever they have to do to get money) this is what you get. You could elect Ghandi president but without getting rid of capitalism you're playing the same game.

[Enthusiast]

28. ...

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

[pa28]

31. Corporate interests are gradually replacing government with agreements like this.

"The US and the European commission, both of which have been captured by the corporations they are supposed to regulate, are pressing for investor-state dispute resolution to be included in the agreement."

Truly chilling.

[rhett o rick]

32. So someone tell me, what does Pres Obama get out of this? nm

[emsimon33]

33. This & TPP may finally be the tipping point that gets the people in the streets

and unites Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals.