Halt Fast Track legislation, TPP

[marmar]

Halt Fast Track legislation, TPP
John Huber and Grania Marcus 4:33 p.m. EDT April 11, 2015


Everyone knows about ISIS, the Islamic State that has produced horrific videos of beheadings and executions in the Middle East, and nearly everyone agrees that ISIS is extremely dangerous.

ISDS? You've never heard of it? That's no surprise, because multinational corporations and the politicians that benefit from their political donations don't want you to know about it.

ISDS stands for Investor State Dispute Settlement, a process for settling disputes between signatories to trade/investor agreements such as the Trans Pacific Partnership, which has been negotiated in secret for the past five years. This innocuous sounding title hides an odious reality. (See "U.S. Trade Policy Facing a U Turn," Democrat and Chronicle, April 9.)

The countries that sign on to the TPP, including the United States, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Australia, Vietnam and Singapore, will agree to the dramatic expansion of the power of multinational corporations to use closed-door challenges that supersede domestic laws. The judges in these tribunals are corporate lawyers who are not subject to normal conflict-of-interest rules. ...................(more)

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/opinion/guest-column/2015/04/11/halt-fast-track-legislation-tpp/25638893/

[Faryn Balyncd]

1. This next week could be critical.

[Omaha Steve]

2. K&R!

[Hoyt]

3. Actually the judges are often college professors and other experts in field.. And findings do not

supercede domestic laws. There might be damages in the rare case a new domestic law violates an international trade agreement. But why be truthful, when one can post junk?

[brentspeak]

6. Actually, the judges will be corporate lawyers

[div class = "excerpt"]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kill-the-dispute-settlement-language-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership/2015/02/25/ec7705a2-bd1e-11e4-b274-e5209a3bc9a9_story.html

The Trans-Pacific Partnership clause everyone should oppose

by Elizabeth Warren

The United States is in the final stages of negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive free-trade agreement with Mexico, Canada, Japan, Singapore and seven other countries. Who will benefit from the TPP? American workers? Consumers? Small businesses? Taxpayers? Or the biggest multinational corporations in the world?

One strong hint is buried in the fine print of the closely guarded draft. The provision, an increasingly common feature of trade agreements, is called “Investor-State Dispute Settlement,” or ISDS. The name may sound mild, but don’t be fooled. Agreeing to ISDS in this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty.

ISDS would allow foreign companies to challenge U.S. laws — and potentially to pick up huge payouts from taxpayers — without ever stepping foot in a U.S. court. Here’s how it would work. Imagine that the United States bans a toxic chemical that is often added to gasoline because of its health and environmental consequences. If a foreign company that makes the toxic chemical opposes the law, it would normally have to challenge it in a U.S. court. But with ISDS, the company could skip the U.S. courts and go before an international panel of arbitrators. If the company won, the ruling couldn’t be challenged in U.S. courts, and the arbitration panel could require American taxpayers to cough up millions — and even billions — of dollars in damages.

If that seems shocking, buckle your seat belt. ISDS could lead to gigantic fines, but it wouldn’t employ independent judges. Instead, highly paid corporate lawyers would go back and forth between representing corporations one day and sitting in judgment the next. Maybe that makes sense in an arbitration between two corporations, but not in cases between corporations and governments. If you’re a lawyer looking to maintain or attract high-paying corporate clients, how likely are you to rule against those corporations when it’s your turn in the judge’s seat?
Your pro-TPP talking points bull$hit are easily debunked. I would say whoever's paying you isn't getting their money's worth.

[Hoyt]

9. Apparently you have comprehension problems. The reference is to the lawyers defending each party,

just like any lawsuit. Each side gets to appoint a "judge." That judge/arbitrator is usually knowledgeable in the dispute issue, look at past tribunal cases and who serves on the panel - often college professors or other experts.

An organization like the WTO oversees the dusputes.

If Japan cheats us as part of a trade agreement, do you want to have to try the issue in their courts.

E Warren knows her readers' hot buttons, and the fact they won't do their own research.

[brentspeak]

12. "E Warren knows her readers' hot buttons, and the fact they won't do their own research."

I've seen some blatant near-admissions of infiltration on this website, but even that one takes the cake.

[Hoyt]

13. Apparently, you have not read up on the tribunals, so she's right -- you won't seek the truth.

[brentspeak]

14. Who's "she"?

Your boss? The one supervising all the pro-TPP propaganda?

[Unknown Beatle]

7. TPP tribunals staffed by corporate lawyers, outside the control of any government,

would rule whether a country’s taxpayers must pay monetary damages to wronged corporations.

Provisions in question are called investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) and let corporations take cases to a tribunal made up of corporate attorneys instead of civil courts. These attorneys will then decide if countries have passed laws or imposed regulations, including health, environmental, labor, consumer and other protections that cause these companies to lose profits.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/29633-over-100-legal-scholars-warn-about-tpp-dangers

[Hoyt]

10. You would be well served to read about international arbitration and the organizations that oversee

them.

Here's a good place to start:
https://m.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/02/26/investor-state-dispute-settlement-isds-questions-and-answers

https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/fact-sheets/2015/march/investor-state-dispute-settlement-isds#

The arbitration is through organizations similar to the WTO and UN. Thousands if trade agreements have a similar process. Even the European Union uses them.

[marmar]

8. "But why be truthful, when one can post junk?"

Perhaps you should ask yourself that question.

[Hoyt]

11. What I said is true, but why don't you tell me where I'm wrong.

[zeemike]

4. We don't have time for that.

Too much other important things going on like anti gay laws being passed all over the place and Ted Cruz and Rand Paul saying crazy things...and probably other things as outrageous to come.

Don't worry, we will find out what is in it after it is passed.

[lovemydog]

5. K & R. I'd like to see a rational defense of it

by someone who is intelligent. There must be someone here who supports it and can explain why.

So far every progressive I've seen here is very much opposed, and that means a lot to me.