Congress will soon debate whether to “fast-track” a trade deal that would make job-killers like NAFTA look puny. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would give corporations the right to sue national governments if they passed any law, regulation, or court ruling interfering with a corporation’s “expected future profits.”
They could also sue over local or state laws they didn’t like. The TPP would cover 40 percent of the world’s economy.
Existing laws and regulations on food safety, environmental protection, drug prices, local contracting, and internet freedom would all be up for challenge. And the decision-makers on such suits would not be local judges and juries; they’d be affiliated with the World Bank, an institution dedicated to corporate interests.
CAN IT BE STOPPED?
Citizen groups believe they can stop the TPP if there is enough outcry. They point to previous victories over the WTO (World Trade Organization) and FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas).
What Is the TPP?
<snip>
The contents have not been made public, but are known to the 600 “corporate advisors” helping write it, such as Chevron, Halliburton, Walmart, Ford, GE, AT&T, Cargill, Pfizer, and the Semiconductor Industry Association. Some information has come to light through leaks.
Like most trade agreements, the TPP is mostly not about trade but about giving corporations more rights to interfere with local laws.
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.
Negotiations begin in July on a Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and the European Union. Stopping TPP would help derail it, too.
Most unions, however, have been slow to get on board—even though the TPP would jeopardize, according to the AFL-CIO, millions of jobs. The Teamsters and Communications Workers have been the most active.
Greg Junemann, president of the Professional and Technical Engineers, says unions have given up, certain that “what Obama wants to do, they are going to do.” Junemann, with other union heads, sits on a labor advisory committee (LAC) on trade—which, he said, has been completely ignored.
more discussion of whether it can be stopped more at:
http://www.labornotes.org/2013/07/secret-tpp-deal-would-void-democracyI haven't read the rest of article yet.
On the one hand, everyone involved should be tarred and feathered and this includes unions who are not opposing PTT. Ditto consumer organizations--any organization that purports to be representing the interests of the 99%. States and local governments, too, since their laws can get trampled.
On the other hand, it's been kept so secret people are just waking up to how horrible it is, while Obama seeks fast tracking. (Before we wake up, I'm guessing.)
On the third hand, unions and 99% oriented organizations should not be among the sleeping!
(I use as many hands in a post as it takes to make my point, but, IRL, I have only the average two--and am very grateful for both of them, even though they can't type.)
This may be another instance in which "bipartisanship" is code for "the 99% are going to get pissed on again in the name of
trickle down American job
annihilation creation."
(Gee, when Obama said jobs were his first priority, I assumed he meant American jobs. Another instance in which we should have insisted that he be more specific, eh?)
P.S. The first ass who tells me I have problems with Obama because he did not give me every single thing I wanted, including a pony, wins a prize for monumental dishonesty, so come on fuckers, claim your prize.
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