Free Trade, DNC Platform and the Climate Crisis

[portlander23]

Free Trade, DNC Platform and the Climate Crisis
Lukas Ross, Friends of the Earth Action
EcoWatch

The same day TransCanada sued the U.S. government for $15 billion, the Democratic Party’s platform drafting committee met in Missouri. Between the two, there is a lesson to be learned about free trade and the climate crisis.

The lawsuit was the anticipated result of President Obama rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline. Using a notorious provision in the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Canadian oil giant is hoping to claim $15 billion in lost future profits by dragging the U.S. before an international tribunal. These sorts of extra-judicial forums, where corporations can sue governments for enforcing their own laws, are a hallmark of established free trade deals like NAFTA and looming ones like the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Talking about responsible trade but refusing to be clear about the TPP isn’t a good look, for the DNC or anyone else. If the TPP and its European counterpart, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, were both enacted, it would radically expand the power of fossil fuel companies to sue the U.S. for laws and regulations that hurt their expected future profits. The power to launch lawsuits like TransCanada’s would be put on steroids and everything from local fracking bans to renewable energy mandates could be litigated in trade tribunals run overwhelmingly by corporate lawyers.

The good news is that Missouri isn’t the end. The platform still needs to be approved by the full platform committee next month in Orlando and after that by the full convention in Philadelphia. When it comes to pushing back on trade and climate, there are still two more shots.

[giftedgirl77]

1. Lolololol

[ljm2002]

3. What a well-reasoned, detailed rebuttal...

...you haven't made.

Of course, some people don't mind looking silly. I guess you are one of those people.

[giftedgirl77]

4. Meh, anything else will get me a hide or fun bumper sticker slogans.

lol sums it up in 3 little words.

[yallerdawg]

2. Facts. We can read TPP now.

THE BASIC FACTS ON ISDS

• TPP specifically protects the right of governments to regulate in the public
interest. We would never negotiate away our right to do so, and we don’t
ask other countries to do so either. This is true for public health and safety,
the financial sector, the environment, and any other area where governments
seek to regulate.

• ISDS ensures that American businesses and investors do not face
discrimination, nationalization, or abuse when doing business abroad.
Through TPP, we can put in place higher standards and stronger safeguards
for ISDS.

• ISDS is found in more than 3,000 existing agreements around the world,
covering 180 countries. The U.S. has taken part in 51 of these agreements
with ISDS over the last 30 years.

• The United States has never lost an ISDS case. We have had only 13 cases
brought to conclusion against us, and the United States has prevailed in
every case. And in part because we have continued to raise standards
through each agreement, in recent years we have seen a drop in ISDS claims,
despite increased levels of cross-border investment. Only one new case has
been brought against the United States in the last five years.

• More than half of companies that initiate ISDS cases are small- and
medium-sized businesses or individual investors, so the millions of
American workers they employ stand to potentially benefit from strong ISDS

And...

• Expectations of an investor. TPP explicitly clarifies that the mere fact that a
government measure frustrates an investor’s “expectations” does not itself give rise to an MST claim.

https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/TPP-Upgrading-and-Improving-Investor-State-Dispute-Settlement-Fact-Sheet.pdf