Democracy Now!: Trans-Pacific Partnership Expands Corporate Lawsuits Against Nations for Lost Profit

[marmar]

Obama-Backed Trans-Pacific Partnership Expands Corporate Lawsuits Against Nations for Lost Profits
Published on Jun 6, 2013

http://www.democracynow.org - The Obama administration is facing increasing scrutiny for the extreme secrecy surrounding negotiations around a sweeping new trade deal that could rewrite the nation's laws on everything from healthcare and internet freedom, to food safety and the financial markets. The latest negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) were recently held behind closed doors in Lima, Peru, but the Obama administration has rejected calls to release the current text. Even members of Congress have complained about being shut out of the negotiation process. Last year, a leaked chapter from the draft agreement outlined how the TPP would allow foreign corporations operating in the United States to appeal key regulations to an international tribunal. The body would have the power to override U.S. law and issue penalties for failure to comply with its rulings. We discuss the TPP with two guests: Celeste Drake, a trade policy specialist with the AFL-CIO; and Jim Shultz, executive director of the Democracy Center, which has just released a new report on how corporations use trade rules to seize resources and undermine democracy. "What is the biggest threat to the ability of corporations to go into a country and suck out the natural resources without any regard for the environment or labor standards? The threat is democracy," Shultz says. "The threat is that citizens will be annoying and get in the way and demand that their governments take action. So what corporations need is to become more powerful than sovereign states. And the way they become more powerful is by tangling sovereign states in a web of these trade agreements."

Drake adds: "We question the wisdom of pursuing the TPP in the first place. We do have, for better or for worse, the World Trade Organization which has lowered tariffs around the world and has allowed us to increase our exports as Mr. Froman was explaining in his speech. So what the TPP is about is all these other things around the tariffs, so it is about the investor state, dispute tribunals, it's about harmonizing rules for food safety, it's about harmonizing rules for intellectual property, a lot of rules that if citizens aren't really participating in the formation of those rules, they're not necessarily going to work out to the benefit of working people and American citizens. So we're very active in following the negotiations and advocating for better rules that will help workers, real farmers, small businesses, because our past trade agreements starting with NAFTA and on down the line have basically been big packages that benefit the 1 percent and if anybody else benefits it's really only by accident and not really by design."

[G_j]

1. This is really bad

I mean REALLY bad, and Obama backs it!
ughh.. maybe we should just give it up and scream UNCLE!!

[Vincardog]

2. No we should go to the window where ever we are, open it and scream

"I am Mad as Hell and I am NOT going to take it any more";
Then write our President, Congress Critters and raise HELL.
BTW today I got a letter from our President Obama.

It was a thank you for your past support and please contribute to help maintain our Senate Majority.

I called 202-456-1111 to tell him Until he quit negotiating secret Trade deals to undermine Democracy and my rights; I would contribute no more

[Egalitarian Thug]

3. More bad republican ideas pushed by a Democratic administration.

& R

[L0oniX]

8. Corporate agendas and ideas are not bound by any party.

[Egalitarian Thug]

12. And as soon as a critical mass of people understand this, we can start to change it. n/t

[L0oniX]

13. We won't be able to. They will know what we are doing and stop us. That is IMO part of the plan.

[Egalitarian Thug]

14. I'm sure they think that, when they bother to think at all.

They've always thought the equivalent of this and they've always been wrong. I think that this cycle is going to be ended by people realizing that they need us and the easiest way to beat them is to simply drop out. Their whole system is dependent on only two pillars, force and the monetary system, resting upon a foundation of sand.

Stay tuned... the times, they are (still) a-changin'.

[WillyT]

4. K & R !!!

[Octafish]

5. So, instead of a government seizing my Swiss bank account, a corporation can take it?

Great! Call Lovey with the news!

[L0oniX]

9. When they sue a country for the expected profit amount they claim to have lost...

because of a violation of the TPP they sell off derivatives from the expected profit that they expect to take from the government at fault. It's not money lost to an investment already made in real property. What we are seeing is a corporate take over of the world ...assisted by our government.

[G_j]

6. kick

[L0oniX]

7. This is another means of the contiunued corporate take over of our government.

Keep laughing while it happens. With the NSA and DHS spying on us all we can't stop them.

[woo me with science]

15. We fail to connect the dots at our peril.

Thank you.

[limpyhobbler]

10. There are still a few good Democrats left but less every year. nt

[madrchsod]

11. welcome to the brave new world revisited....

[woo me with science]

16. The scenery is coming down.

“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”

Frank Zappa



"In the US, there is basically one party - the business party. It has two factions, called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies. By and large, I am opposed to those policies. As is most of the population."

Noam Chomsky