The Big Problems in Obama's Big Trade Deals [View all]

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Framed as the biggest trade deal in the history of the world, trade representatives from the United States and the European Union meet in Washington this week to begin transatlantic trade talks. This is one of two major trade deals on President Barack Obama's docket this year.

The U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) make up the majority of the world's global domestic product and are already plagued by oversight and accountability issues. The vulnerable communities that will be impacted are wide-ranging, spanning the environmental, labor and health sectors.

Discussions are happening fast and furiously. TTIP is already underway and the administration hopes to finish the TPP negotiations by October. Beyond the disembowelment of environmental and labor standards, there's a larger issue that remains out of the spotlight. It is the plan for extrajudicial "investor-state" tribunals as the final arbiter on trade disputes.

While it sounds innocuous enough, the operative word here is extrajudicial, and Democrats and Republicans should be concerned with the sovereignty issues. As the Huffington Post's Zach Carter explains, "Foreign corporations operating within the U.S. would be permitted to appeal key American legal or regulatory rulings to an international tribunal. That international tribunal would be granted the power to overrule American law." Furthermore, the tribunals can order taxpayer compensation for health and environmental policies that inhibit foreign investors' "expected future profits."

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http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2013/07/08/us-eu-trade-agreement-needs-more-congressional-oversight