Thursday, November 6, 2014

Gaius Publius — All you need to know about the TPP "trade agreement" — corporate sovereignty

A year or so ago I wrote that coming into office, Obama had four high-priority "legacy" items: 
▪ Health care “reform” — a privatized alternative to Medicare expansion
▪ A “Grand Bargain” in which social insurance benefits are rolled back
▪ Plentiful oil & gas, and passage of the Keystone pipeline
▪ Passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement

While he accomplished the first almost immediately, and while we now have "plentiful oil & gas" (not a good thing from a climate standpoint), the other three remain stalled. But look for each of them to re-rear its head, thanks to the strengthened bipartisan corporate majority in Congress.…
Leaked clauses in the TPP would allow foreign banks to sue the U.S. to overturn bank regulations — a wet dream for Wall Street. Programs to "buy American" could be effectively outlawed, since the redress when a corporation wins in the "tribunals" is payment by the losing entity (the sovereign state or local government) of lost future profits.
Bottom line, this enshrines into the Constitution (via the Supremacy Clause) a set of corporate-controlled tribunals that are higher in standing than the U.S. Supreme Court.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land;
 
Treaties like these — TPP, TTIP and all their cousins — create a network of enforceable international laws in which corporations hold sovereign power. That's all you need to know to explain and oppose them. (And if you're wondering why Barack Obama, of all people, would be in for them, I suggest you don't know Barack Obama.)
Hullabaloo
All you need to know about the TPP "trade agreement" — corporate sovereignty
Gaius Publius

No comments: