TPP photos on Flickr

A secret global trade deal being negotiated right now called the Trans Pacific Partnership would let corporations sue our governments to overturn any law or regulation they say hurts their "expected future profits" or causes “restraint of trade.” Corporations are granted charters to do business by an elected government for no other reason than to provide useful goods and services to the people and gainful employment for their workers. IF a corporation is successful, they will earn funds in excess of their sales in order to reinvest in their business, and they may also pay bonuses to their workers and have profits for their investors as a reward for success, and pay taxes to the government for the PRIVILEGE of doing business. Excessively high profits are effectively a TAX by corporations on the workers and consumers of this world and go beyond fair compensation to investors for the use of their money. Profits are a reward for performance, not an automatic right.

Multinational corporations are loyal to NO country regardless of where their charter to do business is granted from. Informed citizens and responsible governments must carefully monitor all corporations to make sure their continued existence is still useful to society and to insure that each corporation does not cause physical or financial harm to the society that granted its charter. Corporations are not granted charters to become political entities and must not be allowed to have any political rights, privileges, or power whatsoever.

The Trans Pacific Partnership would grant what amounts to political power to transnational corporations who would then be answerable to no one. Since the dawn of civilization, the only commercial entities beyond the reach of law have been pirates, cattle rustlers, and criminal gangs of all sizes. Even though no nation’s constitution allows it to willingly give up political power beyond the bounds of its constitutional authority, the TPP would illegally grant all corporations the right to become pirates, rustlers, and criminal gangs beyond the reach of civil or criminal law. That is why the TPP must be stopped.

Perhaps the worst part of TPP and TAFTA is that it is slated to include Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). That’s the UNCONSTITUTIONAL mechanism that allows greedy multi-national corporations to challenge critical public interest policies by suing governments in EXTRAJUDICIAL foreign tribunals authorized to order unlimited taxpayer compensation for violations of broad investor “rights.” These commercial tribunals function as courts, but unlike real courts, they are not accountable to the voters or elected representatives. The ISDS penalizes governments when they attempt to do the right thing by blackmailing them to avoid enacting public interest safeguards in the first place for fear of being sued for millions or even billions of dollars.

This EXTORTION mechanism already exists under some so-called “free trade” agreements, including TAFTA’s namesake, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). If included in TPP and TAFTA, the expanded ISDS system would empower more than 71,000 additional corporations to attack domestic policies on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific.

Some corrupt members of Congress CLAIM to support American sovereignty, but the TPP undermines our laws, regulations, and our Constitutional processes. The Investor-State Dispute Settlement tribunals act like courts but are accountable to no one except the greedy multinational corporations that pay and staff them. If the TPP is such a great "free" trade agreement, why is the text hidden in secrecy from the American public and even most members of Congress? I bet most of these "free" trade zealots are not privy to the secret text. Any deal that undermines U.S. sovereignty by giving multinational corporations the power to challenge our laws in an unaccountable commercial tribunal is unacceptable.

Bad trade agreements create a RACE TO THE BOTTOM which benefits only the multinationals. It lets them export jobs, undermine environmental standards and restrict internet freedom. The corporate lobbyists don’t want the public to have the chance to see what’s in this deal -- and they don’t want Congress to change what they are trying to foist on America.

Addendum: If this corrupt "free" trade agreement goes through, the same gang of pirates and thieves will try the force Europe into approving the TTIP/TAFTA so they can destroy Europe's very good food purity laws, environmental regulations, and labor laws. The EU must stop the corporate fascists in North America and Asia from ruining Europe. That will mean standing firm against the US.

TPP.jpg by Clive Copeman