Category: TPP

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) threat

by Peter Whish-Wilson MP.   From the NSW Greens quarterly Green Voice

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the biggest trade deal in Australia’s history and has been negotiated in total secrecy.

Few people have had access to the draft agreement. Large corporations have been able to see portions of the text and lobby to make changes, while the public and most people within government have been shut out. If it was not for a few leaked documents we would not know what is going on.Probably the most controversial aspect is the provision that would allow foreign investors to sue any level of government if their profits are reduced by any Australian law or policy. The Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) risks our labour, public health and environmental standards. These clauses are already included in many operating trade agreements and by corporations, and governments have been sued by corporations. In Canada the Quebec government is being sued by the US Lone Pine energy company because it was required to suspend its gas fracking operations to conduct an environmental study. read more

21.06.2015 Author: James ONeill
New Eastern Outlook

The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) currently nearing its final stages of negotiation purports to be about increasing trade and economic co-operation among its twelve negotiating parties. These twelve countries include the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Significantly, it does not include China.

The agreement is being negotiated in conditions of extraordinary secrecy. Only recently have selected members of each countries legislatures been permitted to see the drafts. They have been taken to a secure room for that purpose. No copies can be taken. No notes may be made. They are sworn to secrecy about what they have seen, and to remain silent for a minimum of four years. read more

By Eric Zuesse Global Research, May 06, 2015

The Obama-proposed international-trade deals, if passed into law, will lead to “a dystopian future in which corporations and not democratically elected governments call the shots,” says Alfred De Zayas, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order.

These two mammoth trade-pacts, one (TTIP) for Atlantic nations, and the other (TTP) [TPP. ed] for Pacific nations excluding China (since Obama is against China), would transfer regulations of corporations to corporations themselves, and away from democratically elected governments. Regulation of working conditions and of the environment, as well as of product-safety including toxic foods and poisonous air and other consumer issues, would be placed into the hands of panels whose members will be appointed by large international corporations. Their decisions will remove the power of democratically elected governments to control these things. “Red tape” that’s imposed by elected national governments would be eliminated — replaced by the international mega-corporate version. read more