TPP: 'She's a beauty, mate!' Really?

[uawchild]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by uppityperson (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Rarely has there been such a triumph of image over substance; rarely such an outpouring of admiration for a deal, whose details yet remain a secret, as there has been this week in the wake of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade announcement.

"A gigantic foundation stone for our future prosperity," gushed the PM as business groups pumped out their press releases with zeal. On the TV news, the networks ran their panegyrics to the TPP even higher in the bulletin than the nightly Prince Harry segment.
If this is such a great deal, why are they hiding it? There is, among other things, a four-letter answer to this question: ISDS (Investor-State Dispute Settlement). ISDS is a mechanism for corporations to sue governments.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/tpp-the-devils-in-the-unknown-details-20151007-gk326i.html

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So, the ISDS is a mechanism for global corporations to intimidate the signatory nations? nice....

[AzDar]

1. K & R

[bobalew]

2. Question is: WHO'S PROSPERITY?

NT

[Bubzer]

3. The obvious (and odious) answer is corporations.

[Sunlei]

4. sure a different 'slant' in australias news about republicans and the 6 years of TPP development...

One issue is the suggestion the pact would ban tobacco companies suing governments for compulsory warnings on cigarette packs and plain packaging laws. Australia supports this; US representatives from tobacco states do not.



......The Australian sugar industry and the agricultural sector in general will want to know what they have been signed up for. Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce earlier said there would be no deal unless sugar was given greater access to markets.

The ACTU will want assurance wages and conditions here will not be forced down to the lower standards of some of our trading partners.

Labor and the Greens will want to micro-examine the agreement in Parliament.

But Mr Robb’s biggest political problem could be in the United States where President Barak Obama is dealing with hostile Republicans and few Democrats in Congress.

President Obama was given the power to negotiate the TPP without references to Congress, but now needs support for the final product.

Initially Republicans were champions of deregulation of trade as outlined by the TPP, but now there are suspicions within the party leadership that what they ordered has not arrived.

One issue is the suggestion the pact would ban tobacco companies suing governments for compulsory warnings on cigarette packs and plain packaging laws. Australia supports this; US representatives from tobacco states do not.

Like most Australians, most Americans have no idea the detail of the agreement, but their patience in a final-term Democrat President might be rationed
.... ref article here http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/the-negotiations-are-over-but-the-tpp-details-remain-secret/story-fnu2pwk8-1227558623603

[Sunlei]

5. I think Americans need ciggie packs like Australias

[msongs]

6. not LBN, it's an opinion piece nt

[uppityperson]

7. Locking as does not meet LBN SOP. GD would be a better place for this.

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