TPP, TISA and TTIP agreements are massive Corporate power grabs dressed up as trade deals.

by Lobo Fri 23 Sep 2016, 4:30 pm

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TPP, TISA and TTIP agreements are massive Corporate power grabs dressed up as trade deals.

by Lobo Fri 23 Sep 2016, 4:30 pm

TPP, TISA and TTIP agreements are massive Corporate power grabs dressed up as trade deals.
Submitted by IWB, on September 23rd, 2016

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by Ian Shilling

TPP, TISA and TTIP agreements are massive Corporate power grabs dressed up as trade deals. Corporate%2BAmerica

The TPP, TISA (and TTIP in Europe) agreements are massive Corporate power grabs dressed up as trade deals in order to get them passed by national assemblies without too much in the way of public protest.
Their primary purpose is to undermine National Sovereignty and enhance transnational Corporate rule.

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They do this by transferring regulatory powers from elected National (and local) governments to transnational arbitration panels (ISDS) which are comprised of lawyers which will be appointed by the major Corporations that are writing the deals.
An example of how ISDS will work:-

TPP, TISA and TTIP agreements are massive Corporate power grabs dressed up as trade deals. ISDS

As the legislature faces a large fine if it passes legislation to protect its citizens, it will be dissuaded from passing the legislation in the first place. So the citizens will be more at risk from all sorts of predation, exploitation and health hazards from large Corporations. This applies at the local, State and National levels.

The wording of the deals are being written by 600 Corporate lobbyists. The US trade delegation team has a heavy proportion of ex-senior employees of US big banks.
Only 5 of the 29 Chapters in TPP are about trade. The rest are about enhancing Corporate power and control and to enhance the profits of large multinational Corporations at the expense of over 99% of people.
They are a redistribution mechanism to transfer wealth and power from the 99% of ordinary people and voters to the CEO’s, boards and major owners of large, often multinational, Corporations.
A selection of other TPP articles and information are listed at the bottom of this article. Basically everyone, from both the left and the right, who isn’t in the pay of the big banks, large drugs companies, big oil and Monsanto etc. very strongly opposes these deals, because they are very bad news for over 99% of ordinary people.
These deals will only benefit the top 0.01% – the major owners and boards of large Corporations. They are dressed up as “free trade” deals in order to get them to pass. They will lose well paid jobs, increase unemployment, depress wages, increase poverty, increase pollution and jack up the price of prescription drugs. They basically screw both your health and your wealth.
People in the US who openly and strongly oppose these deals include Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Reich, Noam Chomsky, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pat Buchanan and Paul Craig Roberts.
Robert Reich is very strongly against TPP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM8osDtyKt0
The purpose of Fast Track in the US, is a) to remove the Constitutional requirement for a two thirds majority (which is otherwise required for a treaty or international agreement) and b) to prevent any amendments to the deals being allowed or proposed. It becomes a simple up or down vote.
The reason for the draconian efforts to keep the texts of the deals a secret up until now without any meaningful public debate and the mainstream media effecting a cover up to keep the public in the dark, is to enable Fast Track to be passed without a riot on the streets. It won’t really matter after Fast Track is approved. The deals will get approved whatever (in the US).
Who are the Tories trying to fool about TTIP?
Geraint Davies (UK MP) “The harsh reality is that this deal is being stitched up behind closed doors by negotiators, with the influence of big corporations and the dark arts of corporate lawyers. They are stitching up rules that would be outside contract law and common law, and outside the shining light of democracy, to give powers to multinationals to sue Governments over laws that were designed to protect their citizens.”
Caroline Lucas (UK MP) pointed out in support of this that “the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, who are in trade agreements that include this kind of investor-state relationship, have been sued 127 times and have lost an amount of money that could have employed 300,000 nurses for a year“.
Read more at:- http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/01/15/who-are-the-tories-trying-to-fool-about-ttip/
In addition to the above there are currently several disputes between US and Canadian oil and mining companies and National governments in South America over compensation to be paid for large scale pollution. (The companies don’t want to pay anything to clean up their mess.)
Almost all aspects of Corporate governance will be affected, e.g.
Banking regulations – The prevention of any new regulations or measures that are more effective in regulating the big banks. The big banks are currently effectively unregulated through Regulatory Capture – they effectively own the regulatory bodies. E.G. in the US both the SEC and CFTC are headed up by senior ex Goldman Sachs bankers.
The occasional minor share holder fine, which is far less than the profits which were made from the illegal activity, is occasionally issued to hoodwink the public that the big banks are being regulated by government. Fines are also used to punish smaller or foreign rivals to the US big banks. No board member ever goes to jail, although the boards encourage (and initiate at least some of) the illegal activities of market fixing, money laundering, mortgage fraud, consumer fraud etc. in order to maximize the profits for the bank and thus the bonus of the CEO and the value of their stock options / stock holdings. The current system actively encourages fraud by the banks – there are no real disincentives or effective punishments for wrong doing.
Ensure that the current private monopoly of money creation can never be taken away from the large private banks. See this:-
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1506/S00166/if-the-tpp-passes-banks-will-wield-awesome-power.htm
Big pharma, prescription drugs and medical treatments – Extend the length of patent protection to delay the introduction of generic drugs, thus greatly increasing the profits of Big Pharma at the expense of consumers (just about everyone). Making drugs more expensive is expected to kill millions of people in the third world and a fair few in the West through making medicine and treatment less affordable.
Undermine any national bodies that negotiate the prices of bulk purchase of drugs with Big Pharma. It would also affect which particular drugs these bodies decide to buy. E.G. there might be a less expensive, equally or even more effective treatment, from a non Big Pharma source – a small drugs company or a more natural treatment. Or Big Pharma might sue to get a very expensive (and thus highly profitable) drug approved which ends up helping far fewer people as other health spending is cut back due to budget and practical constraints. Big Pharma have and are developing several drugs that are expected to cost $100,000 per patient, per year. Who is Big Pharma expecting to be able to sell these drugs to (in any volume)? They must be expecting to have a large influence on e.g. National purchasing schemes and bodies.
Prevent competition to private hospitals and clinics. The private hospital could sue for “loss of profits” if a government built a new hospital near to a private one.
Environmental protections. E.G. whether fracking or other mining activities are allowed or not. The regulations surrounding pollution and the amount of compensation paid out for any pollution or other harm caused.
GMO Foods and the associated herbicides and pesticides used in their cultivation. The prevention of bans on growing GMO foods, or other crops, or bans or limitations on the types or amounts of herbicides or pesticides that the crops are specifically designed to be grown with. There has been a fairly recent report from the World Health Organization that glyphosate herbicides are a possible carcinogen which has resulted in some countries initiating measures to ban them. There also reports of other health hazards linked to these products, e.g. an increase in kidney disease or renal failure. Again the amount of compensation to be paid out in the event of harm from these products will be subject to control by the transnational tribunals.
The prevention of better food labeling, e.g. to show GMO ingredients.
Labor, Employment and Health and Safety Law. Corporations would be able to sue if governments brought in regulations to improve the lot of the workers.
Internet. Regulations to control access to content, or the priority and access speeds given to the content of large Corporations as opposed to smaller independent content suppliers. Regulations on where private, personal data is stored – e.g. to facilitate access to this data by the NSA (prevent measures to make it harder for the NSA to get this data). Etc.

Copyright law. Protect the profits of Hollywood.
The overall result will be to dissuade National or local governments from passing laws that protect their citizens from predation, exploitation or health hazards by large, often multinational, Corporations.
I’m pretty sure there are other things that I haven’t thought of, but that some smart Corporate lawyer will, to exploit the measures in these Corporate Protection deals.
The politicians have been bribed by their Corporate sponsors to pass these disastrous deals, which are against the interests of over 99% of their citizens.
Wages and Incomes
The TPP deal, in particular, is designed to suppress wages for ordinary people in order to increase Corporate profits and thus the incomes of the top 0.1%.
This is exactly the opposite direction to that required to fix the world economy.
The disproportionate share of income growth to the top 1%, and especially the top 0.1%, is a major part of the reason for the slow economic growth in the US and Europe since 2000.
TPP Trade Deal Will Cost US 448,000 Jobs, Say Tufts University Researchers
http://theantimedia.org/tpp-trade-deal-will-cost-us-4480000-jobs-say-researchers/
The effects of increasing Corporatism on average incomes since 1949