Secret tribunals part of “Trojan Horse” Trans-Pacific trade deal

[Starry Messenger]

http://peoplesworld.org/secret-tribunals-part-of-trojan-horse-trans-pacific-trade-deal/

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a free trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 Asian and Pacific countries that few people have heard of. If enacted, the TPP would encompass nearly 40 percent of the global economy ($27.5 trillion) and affect the lives of 800 million people. The stated goal of the partnership is to eliminate tariffs, and increase the flow of investment capital between signatories. Concealed within this naked move by the global One Percent to squeeze as much profit as possible from the planet is the mechanism for multinational corporations to subvert democracy and legal process through the implementation of secret tribunals.

Last Thursday, CWA president Larry Cohen agreed with MSNBC's Ed Schultz's assessment that regarding the TPP, "the president [Obama] clearly is on the wrong side of the issue." Not only would the trade deal result in the loss of jobs and diminish the power of U.S. workers to collectively bargain it would also grant special powers to multinational corporations. Cohen spoke passionately about the TPP's broad side attack on democracy: "If any of these nations improve standards for workers, if they improve environmental standards, or safety standards that cut corporate profits the TPP allows these corporations to try to stop those moves by suing for billions of dollars."

Candice Johnson, communications director for the Communications Workers of America, explains, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership will give special rights to corporations. It will allow them to challenge any laws that could impact expected future profits." Citing the recent example of a fracking ban passed by the people of Denton, Texas, under the TPP Denton "could be sued for the amount of profit [the corporation] expected." The suit would be filed, not in any U.S. court, but in a "secret tribunal" run by multinational corporations.

Just today Johnson learned that under the articles of the trade deal, "U.S. companies can set up overseas dummy corporations for the sole purpose of suing the United States" for losses of expected profit. In other words, any regulation or limitation of corporate profitability would result in that profit being extracted directly from the citizenry without their consent, or even awareness.

<snip>

[L0oniX]

1. Sovereignty loss creep.

[djean111]

2. Just remember who helped write it and who champions it.

Not a pony.
Not a unicorn.
Affects so many people, so many countries.
Affects my vote, that's for damn sure. No list, no little chart can sway how I feel about politicians who worked on/push this reeking thing.

[antigop]

5. Hillary Clinton's Business Legacy at State Dept (leading part in drafting TPP)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101667554

[daleanime]

6. Amen....

[grahamhgreen]

3. Costly trade costs jobs.

[Faryn Balyncd]

4. Is the TPP the absolute WORST piece of mislabeled, corrupt, ant-democratic "diplomacy" ever schemed?

(It's looking that way).

I can't believe my President is involved.

[Dont call me Shirley]

7. Let's secretly tribunal these multinationals into prison, the major owners, CEOs, and BoDs.

[socialist_n_TN]

12. OK. Sounds like a socialist revolution to me..

[Maedhros]

8. IMO, this is the issue that separates Democrats from pretenders.

One can't support the TPP and be a Democrat. Our tent is not that big, or that putrid.

[PeoViejo]

9. The Corporations want to control the Planet

and eliminate elected governments. We will become their serfs, dependent on them for everything. In order to eat, we will have to work for them. Open- Pollinated seeds will be subject to inspection and penalties demanded if contaminated by DNA from patented GMO organisms.
They already have majority control of the food supply. The Banksters manipulate the price of Commodities to extract as much profit as they can, before we get the privilege of buying them with credits earned for our Labor. They harvest us just like crops, waiting for us to save for retirement, then plundering our savings, if we have any.

[George II]

10. Anyone around here actually READ the document????

[socialist_n_TN]

11. Nobody can read the document. It's being negotiated in secret BY.....

representatives of the corporations and FOR the corporations. These things that have come out are leaks. But if it's fast-tracked then nobody will have TIME to read it and organize any effective resistance to it.

The above excerpt is a leak that I've seen before though and thought at the time would result in exactly what's being warned about. If you think about it and as we're told often, labor costs are the biggest costs a corporation has, so any labor costs could be set against future profit. Ditto with environmental laws and regulations.

[George II]

13. That's my point. So how is it that so many people know so much about what it contains?

[socialist_n_TN]

15. Leaks, leaks, leaks........

Until the bosses come clean, preferably BEFORE this deformity gets fast-tracked, we won't have anything else, BUT leaks.

But they don't want to release it in time for people to analyze the actual document because it would raise an outcry and prevent it from passing. They want to slip it through before any effective opposition can be mobilized. So all we'll have until AFTER it becomes law is leaks.

[George II]

16. No doubt OBJECTIVELY leaked??????

[Starry Messenger]

17. What does that mean?

Objectively leaked?

Wikileaks has some of the material: https://wikileaks.org/tpp-enviro/pressrelease.html

You can read for yourself there.

[George II]

18. It means that the so-called "leaks" were not filtered to prove a point before they were leaked.

[Starry Messenger]

19. Well, if you have another source, you're welcome to post it.

If you think this trade agreement will actually prove to be filled with rainbows and unicorn farts, you might be in the wrong forum.

The burden of proof is on you however, since our other trade agreements have been full of poison pills for the working class in the past.

[socialist_n_TN]

20. So? As Starry said, you're more than welcome to bring something ......

to the table that will prove just how good this miscarriage will be for the working class. So far all the leaks we've seen have been pretty bad for workers, but if that's some sort of conspiracy to only present the "bad" side of the agreement, then surely you can find something in the leaks that are good for the rest of us.

Good luck with that.

[George II]

21. I'm not the one claiming to know the detailed contents of an agreement that hasn't even been....

....completely written yet.

WHEN we see it, and if it has these so-called "secret tribunals" and everything else that is being rumored, then we can characterize it as good or bad.

Until then, you folks know no more than I do about the TPP.

[Starry Messenger]

22. It's called recognizing a pattern.

[George II]

23. aka "profiling"!

[Starry Messenger]

24. Of a trade bill?

Get real. I think you are in here to disrupt, so either get lost, or I'll block you.

[George II]

26. You're making drawing conclusions about the TPP based a "pattern" - that's equivalent....

....to profiling. You "see" a document (that hasn't even been completely written yet) and from what you've seen in other documents of it's kind you're drawing conclusions and pronouncing judgment.

No, I'm not here to "disrupt", I'm here to present an objective reality.

In a decade of being on these forums, I've block anyone or put one on ignore.

[socialist_n_TN]

27. Well yeah, I'm going to draw conclusions about this trade deal.........

but those conclusions will be based on historical FACT. Among those facts, the FACT that past trade agreements have been terrible for workers, the FACT that it's being negotiated in secret, the FACT that the negotiators are the well-heeled members of the bourgeoisie who have proven over and over again that they do NOT have workers' interests in mind, the FACT that fast-track has already been called for which leads to the FACT that a fast-track deal will NOT give opponents enough time to actually parse the agreement, the FACT that these types of fast-track deal mean that the political toadies of the bourgeoisie will attempt to ram-rod this through before most people even know about it. And those facts are just off the top of my head.

IF the negotiators want people to support this, they will negotiate transparently. Until they do, I'm going to be suspicious BECAUSE of the FACTS laid out above.

[Starry Messenger]

29. There's a first time for everything!

Ta!

[socialist_n_TN]

28. Yeah Starry. it's like breaking windows or setting fire to a trash can.....

is "violence", but a cop murdering an unarmed black kid is not violence, but is "protect and serve". Attributing human characteristics to "property" is a way of framing an issue for neo-liberals.

[Starry Messenger]

30. Yep.

I think we've seen enough of it today.

[socialist_n_TN]

31. I don't know Starry, he was kind of fun to toy with......

[Starry Messenger]

32. Sorry!

I was on my way to a meeting and was full of coffee!

[socialist_n_TN]

33. No problem comrade, he was definitely riding the edge....

However, his arguments weren't holding water and it was becoming pretty obvious. It's fun to watch someone try to defend the indefensible.

[TBF]

25. We've seen enough that's been

leaked to know we want to part of it. Specifically I am concerned about the threats to the Internet - https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp

The twelve nations currently negotiating the TPP are the US, Japan, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, and Brunei Darussalam. The TPP contains a chapter on intellectual property covering copyright, trademarks, patents and perhaps, geographical indications. Since the draft text of the agreement has never been offically released to the public, we know from leaked documents, such as the February 2011 draft US TPP IP Rights Chapter [PDF], that US negotiators are pushing for the adoption of copyright measures far more restrictive than currently required by international treaties, including the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

That's enough for me and if you care at all about working folks and our right to organize (and communicate via certain methods) it should be enough for you.

[ctsnowman]

14. K & R