New Study Shows Dangers of Trade Agreements That Help Corporations Sue Governments

[enough]

http://triplecrisis.com/new-study-shows-dangers-of-trade-agreements-that-help-corporations-sue-governments/

Robin Broad and John Cavanagh

As the Obama administration negotiates new trade agreements with European and Pacific nations, a battle has emerged over the agreements’ egregious rules that grant giant corporations unreasonable powers to subvert democracy. These rules, dubbed “investor rights” by the corporations, allow firms to sue governments over actions—including public interest regulations—that reduce the value of their investments.

Oxfam, the Institute for Policy Studies, and four other non-profits are releasing a new study that explains why these rules are so dangerous to democracy and the environment. We are among the co-authors of this study, titled “Debunking Eight Falsehoods by Pacific Rim Mining/OceanaGold in El Salvador.” The report offers a powerful case study of everything that is wrong with this corporate assault on democracy.

“Debunking Eight Falsehoods” is a careful refutation of the arguments of a giant Australian/Canadian mining firm, Pacific Rim/OceanaGold, that is suing the government of El Salvador over that government’s decision to stop issuing new mining licenses. The Salvadoran government did this precisely because its citizens deemed the environmental and social costs too high. Pacific Rim’s proposed gold mine was in the fragile and already compromised watershed of the key river that supplies water to over half the country’s people.

MORE at: http://triplecrisis.com/new-study-shows-dangers-of-trade-agreements-that-help-corporations-sue-governments/#sthash.6PVBM6lr.dpuf

[djean111]

1. These "trade agreements" are becoming evil scheming pieces of crap.

IMO, no one should be able to sue a country because that country does not want them polluting it.
Not right when we do it, not right when others do it.

let's see - how long until Monsanto just laughs and sues the EU for not buying GMO seeds?
How long until Monsanto just laughs at the individual states here who ban GMO or demand labeling, and sue?

[woo me with science]

12. Not long. We are being delivered into the arms of sociopaths.

Corporate rule is, by definition, sociopathic. Profit alone, not human worth or value, is the measure by which decisions are made.

[woo me with science]

2. K&R

[jsr]

3. Recommend

[jwirr]

4. Sr. bush's "New World Order": rule by corporation.

[woo me with science]

5. Why do you ignore corporate Democrats?

Clinton signed NAFTA. Obama is pushing to fast-track TPP, the most massive, predatory trade agreement in our nation's history.

Why do you attempt to sidestep the predatory actions of corporate Democrats?

Obama's TPP will mean a pay cut for 90 percent of American workers.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=414

[jwirr]

7. Who said I was. My statement here was regarding the beginning of this idiocy and what it really

amounts to. Bill Clinton played into the hands of the corporations and I have little respect for that. And I have real problems understanding Obama - maybe the fact that he taught at the University of Chicago has blinded him to the evils of disaster capitalism which is the real father of these trade plans. I have always wondered why he seems to fit into their plans more than ours. The last I heard Democrats in Congress are not going to support the TPP. Hopefully they will hold their ground. It is a sure thing that the repugs in Congress will be for it.

As to why. I have been poor all of my life. There is a difference between the two parties. Maybe not for the middle class but definitely for the poor. I learned that the hard way and am still learning it the hard way.

[woo me with science]

9. OBAMA is pushing the vicious TPP and other "free trade" predation.

His hell-bent insistence on this monstrosity threatens us in broad, unconscionable ways: across-the-board wage cuts, job losses, loss of internet freedom, reduced access to medications, environmental assaults, loss of national sovereignty re:regulation, etc., etc., etc.

Bush is not making him do this.

To complain in this context that "the parties are not the same" and to attempt to divert to Bush is beyond disingenuous.

[jwirr]

10. Okay, have it your way. History has nothing to do with any of this. And by the way you asked WHY

I was not so anti Democrat - I told you. If you do not want to know don't ask.

[woo me with science]

11. It should be a signal to you that there is a serious problem

when attributing policies honestly to the Democrats who are pushing them *right now* is construed as being "anti-Democrat."

[jsr]

6. He was president 25 years ago.

[jwirr]

8. And it is his plan we are still working with. If you do not see his hand in this history then you do

not really know what is going on.

[woo me with science]

13. kick

[woo me with science]

14. kick

[woo me with science]

15. kick