The Obscure Trade Provision Everyone Is Talking About

[n2doc]

by Terra Lawson-Remer

Last week the U.S. Senate dealt the President a temporary surprise setback on a central piece of his trade agenda, refusing to allow Fast Track trade authority to move to a vote. The Senate showdown was just a preview of the epic battle brewing in the House. Whether the President can convince enough members of Congress to go along with him will depend in large part on what horses he's willing to trade to get a deal.

There are a huge number of issues on the table, but the make-or-break may come down to an obscure provision of international law, obliquely called 'Investor State Dispute Settlement' (ISDS) mechanisms. ISDS gives foreign corporations the right to bring private lawsuits through secretive supra-national tribunals when governments pass laws that protect the public interest, but might harm profits.

In the U.S., libertarians and conservatives worried about national sovereignty have joined with pro-environment, pro-labor progressives to mobilize against Fast Track, in large part because Fast Track would grease the skids to expand ISDS through trade treaties.

ISDS allows foreign companies to dodge national justice systems and sue governments in front of self-selected panels of private arbitrators (drawn from the ranks of corporate trade lawyers), whose decisions are binding and cannot be appealed. The system has already generated literally billions of dollars in frivolous claims by foreign corporations against democratic governments.

more

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terra-lawsonremer/the-obscure-trade-provisi_b_7297342.html

[Scuba]

1. The worst of many bad elements included in this pile of dogshit.

[enough]

2. The examples are telling:

snip from the article>

When Germany began phasing-out nuclear power after Japan's Fukushima disaster, Swedish energy company Vattenfall sued to recover their lost projected profits.

Australia and Uruguay are now under attack by Phillip Morris for requiring health warnings on tobacco products, because the regulations, designed to save children's lives, are cutting into profits.

French company Veolia sued Egypt after Egypt raised its minimum wage, increasing Veolia's operating costs.

And most recently, Canada was successfully sued for refusing to grant a mining company a permit for destructive mega-blasting, in an effort to protect the ecosystem and the livelihoods of local fisherman in Nova Scotia.

The size of damages can be breathtaking. An ISDS arbitration panel ordered Ecuador to pay Occidental Petroleum $2.3 billion as compensation for lost hoped-for future profits when Occidental broke the law and suffered the fully foreseeable consequences.

snip>

[PSPS]

3. Yet the swooners seem compelled to defend/dismiss this lest it reflect badly on their "Dear Leader."

[OKNancy]

7. why smear Obama with that "dear leader" crap?

Obama isn't perfect, but no reason to use a term that is used for Kim Jong-il
I see it a lot used by freeper types too.

[mopinko]

4. obscure?? yeah sure.

[cali]

5. huh? That's one of the less obscure provisions- if not the least obscure

I suspect there is so much buried in the tpp and obscured by weasel language that doesn't do what it purports to do, that it's mind boggling- in other words, there will be a massive amount of lipstick on this pig.

[Fred Sanders]

6. If the claims are overwhelmingly frivolous, as stated in the OP, then who gives a crap?

[cali]

8. another comment that doesn't reflect any knowledge about ISDS, from you.

don't you have enough to worry about in Great Britain?

[99Forever]

9. Yeah but ... scary RAND PAUL... OH NOEZ!!!!!

<------ for the reality challenged.

[n2doc]

10. Posted in that thread

Rand voted for cloture 2 times on the TPP fast track. He is a supporter.

[99Forever]

11. Whew...

Well I dodged that bullet...


... thought I might have become a "Paulbot," as stated by the usual suspect.

[n2doc]

12. You're not outta the woods yet

Trump is an opponent of the TPP. You TrumpBot!

[99Forever]

13. Ermagerd....

Not Trump! And that creature on his head!


All is lost.