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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums8 Terrible Things About the Trans-Pacific Partnership
http://inthesetimes.com/article/18695/TPP_Free-Trade_Globalization_Obama#1 IT GIVES 9,200 FOREIGN FIRMS THE RIGHT TO CIRCUMVENT OUR COURTS AND ATTACK THE LAWS WE RELY ON FOR A CLEAN ENVIRONMENT, SAFE FOOD AND DECENT JOBS.
Foreign corporations would be empowered to drag the U.S. government in front of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunals composed of three private arbitrators. Many ISDS arbitrators are lawyers who rotate between suing governments for corporations and acting as the judges.
There is no limit on the amount of our tax dollars the government can be ordered to pay when foreign corporations successfully argue that their TPP rights have been undermined. Compensation orders could include a corporations estimate of the future profits it would have earned in the absence of the public policy it is attacking. Even when governments win, under TPP rules they can be ordered to pay for the tribunals costs and legal fees, which average $8 million per case.
The TPPs expansion of the ISDS system would come just as a surge in ISDS cases elevating corporate profits over the public interest has led other countries, such as South Africa and Indonesia, to begin revoking their ISDSenforced treaties. Recent cases include Eli Lillys attack on Canadas cost-saving medicine patent system, Philip Morris attack on Australias public health policies regulating tobacco, Chevrons attack on an Ecuadorian court ruling that ordered payment for mass toxic contamination in the Amazon, and Vattenfalls attack on Germanys phase-out of nuclear power.
Almost all of the 50 past U.S. ISDS-enforced pacts are with developing nations with few investors here, allowing the United States largely to dodge ISDS tribunals and fines to date.
But the TPP would extend ISDS powers to more than 9,200 U.S. subsidiaries of some 1,000 corporations in TPP nations, including the economic powerhouse of Japan.
The tribunals are unaccountable to any electorate. There is no outside appeal on their dictates. In effect, the TPP elevates these foreign firms to equal status with the entire U.S. government.
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8 Terrible Things About the Trans-Pacific Partnership (Original Post)
eridani
Dec 2015
OP
KG
(28,751 posts)1. but, but, Brunei is getting a minimum wage!
newfie11
(8,159 posts)2. I will never understand why Obama pushed this crap
Proserpina
(2,352 posts)3. Because you are pure of heart
and simply not cynical enough to understand the arrogance, greed and payoffs.
But that's to YOUR credit! Stay that way, as long as you can.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)4. because everyone who complains would still want the 22nd Amendment ended for a third Obama term
it's called charisma
jwirr
(39,215 posts)5. The source is an extremely good one regarding things like
this. Thank you.
I hope that we can stop this from passing before the 2016 election. And then if Bernie does win we can stop it totally.
AzDar
(14,023 posts)6. Reason #5,908 to vote for Bernie : Our best hope to kill this fucker w/ fire...