You Knew the TPP Was Bad. Here's How It Gets Even Worse

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/10/01/you-knew-tpp-was-bad-heres-how-it-gets-even-worse

Here is a news article that explains why people should be alarmed about this secret “trade” agreement that the giant corporations have come up with. Reuters reports, in “U.S. business groups oppose exceptions in Pacific trade pact“:

U.S. business groups have voiced their opposition to blocking specific products, like tobacco, from rules letting foreign companies sue governments over damage to investments as Pacific trade ministers gather to finalize an ambitious trade deal.

Ministers from the 12 nations negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the biggest trade deal in a generation, will meet in Atlanta later on Wednesday to try to close the pact.
The letter, sent to TPP officials late on Monday, comes amid reluctance by some countries to sign on to rules similar to those that allowed Marlboro maker Philip Morris to sue TPP partner Australia over tobacco plain-packaging laws.

Sources close to the negotiations have said one option under discussion is to exclude tobacco from the investor-state dispute settlement rules, while Australia wants a broader exemption from litigation over health and environmental issues.

… Any different treatment for tobacco risks a backlash in the United States and could erode support in Congress for the TPP by upsetting lawmakers from tobacco-producing states like Kentucky.