Jump to content

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership - TTIP


Xann

Recommended Posts

I listen to Harry Shearer's radio show most weeks.  On there I'd heard about the Trans Pacific version of this bill (USA and Pacific Rim nations) which supposedly got leaked via WikiLeaks states that the bill enables corporations to sue governments if local law prevents them from meeting expected profit targets. 

 

If that happens then at what point do we just say bollocks to it all and give Coca Cola control over our armed forces? 

 

 

Edit:   (link to the bit: timestamp 52:20)   

 

And yes, it seems Kent Brockman is his normal speaking voice. 

Edited by The_Rev
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nations become less and less important and powerful by the day. Everything is set for multinational corporations to run the world, even more than they already do. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad that TTIP is finally getting some more press at least. I think most right minded citizens of any political persuasion would find what might be on the table here to be pretty unacceptable.

Unfortunately state-investor resolution mechanisms are already a fact of life throughout much of the world. If TTIP does one thing I hope it is to make people realise how bad things are already as well as the steps being taken to increase the corporate stranglehold on power.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

These things already exist:

 

- there's one between the US and Australia, where Phillip Morris Tobacco are currently suing the government for loss of profit because they've put cigarettes into plain packaging.

 

- there's one between the US and Canada, where Monsanto are currently insisting that Canada changes its meat labelling and safety standards and threatening to sue for loss of profits if they don't.

 

- there's one between the US and a group of South American countries, where Phillip Morris Tobacco (again) forced a change to one of the most successful anti-smoking health programmes in the world and in doing so raised the death rate back up in line with the rest of South America. (I think it was in Venezuela)

 

TTIP will allow US corporations to impose US food safety standards, US health care systems and any and all US banking regulations on the UK - and it's being conducted in secret - the EU has refused legal efforts by campaign groups to even get a look at the draft document - there's full access for the corporate donors pushing this through, and absolutely none to those involved in democratic process.

 

It is in a nutshell, corporate terrorism - the usurping of democracy by the market and a final effort by the US to lock everything down before China starts to try and impose an alternative.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That piece of film is shocking!

 

So, by their own constitution, if enough Euro MP's vote by standing up, then they can stop a vote on any motion until they've had a chance to discuss it?

 

The chair starts the meeting by saying he's suspending the session until the vote tomorrow - 183 Euro MP's use the rule above and protest that they want it discussed and the voting should be postponed or cancelled and he just says "Sorry, we're closed until the vote time"

 

He may as well have just out his fingers in his ears and gone "la la la can't hear you"

 

Democracy in action.

 

I'm sure this will be on the front of the papers tomorrow, as it was throughout the election coverage. No? Perhaps they can distract us with pictures of dangerous underfed men on boats.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm all for free markets and capitalism, but I think we've got the saturation point now where humans in the Western world have absolutely lost their minds. These massive trade agreements being negotiated look nothing short of insane to the sound of mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not even free market now is it? It seems that the early 21st century is about the incumbent powers trying to lock down their positions of power. Disarming governments ability to deal with companies running wild seems insane but because a few people will make a LOT of money out of it then there is a genuine threat that this might happen.

I predict a world like the first Robocop movie by 2020. The silver lining is that at least nation states no longer continuing to exist means we don't have to worry about the World Cup in Qatar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is economic fascism. And the end result of the success' of deregulation that has gone on since the 70's. These **** corporations have been exposed to ever more oppoortunity for obscene weath and they have no desire to pull back, and no organisation has the power to stop it any more thanks to the secretive and persistent influence of lobbyists and big media.

 

The State-Dispute Investor thingymajig ( the suing bit The Rev refers to ) is just mind-blowing in it's psychosis. The depth to which business' will sink to ensure profit wins out over everything is staggering.

 

It is just one deal, but the level of criticicsm it has reached makes me ( ever so very slightly ) optimistic that more people will start switching on to the desperate need to check these organisations from yielding even more unhealthy levels of influence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Both the Left and the Right should reject the TTIP because it is an attack on the sovereignty of the country.

 

So while the government is going through the motions about the UK's relationship with Europe and the accumulating sovereignty issues, the TTIP is being negotiated in secret on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

The big issue is the Investor-State Dispute Settlement provision which means big corporations will be able to bypass UK courts and sue the government, for policies which they claim damage their business, and UK tax-payers could end up paying huge amounts of compensation to big corporations.

 

A corporation could actually seek compensation if the UK government was to increase the minimum wage, for example.

 

Here is Elizabeth Warren (Democrat) explaining the situation in a question to the Senate, about a different treaty but with the same provision.

 

She provides examples of claims which have already been lodged in Europe.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's the Tory stance on ISDS.

 

 I do not believe that any of the Members who voted in the committee believe that ISDS as it currently stands is a flawless mechanism. I wholeheartedly agree with the European Commission that changes must be made, such as the creation of an appeals procedure, greater transparency in proceedings, codes of conduct for arbitrators and a clamping down on parallel cases in domestic and ISDS courts.

 

The European Commission has set out their goals for the reform of ISDS through their recent concept paper presented on 6th May and I believe we should wait to see how they can reform the mechanism before we set out a position on it. Many concerns of EU citizens have already been addressed in the trade agreement awaiting signature on Canada (The Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement) and the proposals for TTIP go even further. In summary it would be premature to rule out ISDS in TTIP before we know what it will look like.

 

Labour.

 

 Let me be clear that the postponed vote does not change Labour's position on it. We remain committed to opposing ISDS, upholding European standards and protecting our NHS. By not endorsing or outright refusing any deal, we are still in a position to have meaningful influence on the negotiations. We will veto a deal that does not reflect the agreements that we want.

 

UKIP on TTIP as a whole.

 

 

Please rest assured that if and when TTIP comes before the European Parliament I will vote against it on the basis that UK trade policy should be decided by the UK government and not the EU. If within the agreement itself there are amendments that remove powers from the EU and return them to the national state I will vote for them.

 

No links.

 

These are from E-mails sent to me by my MEPs.

 

I questioned them all on their voting intentions.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's the Tory stance on ISDS.

I do not believe that any of the Members who voted in the committee believe that ISDS as it currently stands is a flawless mechanism. I wholeheartedly agree with the European Commission that changes must be made, such as the creation of an appeals procedure, greater transparency in proceedings, codes of conduct for arbitrators and a clamping down on parallel cases in domestic and ISDS courts.

The European Commission has set out their goals for the reform of ISDS through their recent concept paper presented on 6th May and I believe we should wait to see how they can reform the mechanism before we set out a position on it. Many concerns of EU citizens have already been addressed in the trade agreement awaiting signature on Canada (The Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement) and the proposals for TTIP go even further. In summary it would be premature to rule out ISDS in TTIP before we know what it will look like.

Labour.

Let me be clear that the postponed vote does not change Labour's position on it. We remain committed to opposing ISDS, upholding European standards and protecting our NHS. By not endorsing or outright refusing any deal, we are still in a position to have meaningful influence on the negotiations. We will veto a deal that does not reflect the agreements that we want.

UKIP on TTIP as a whole.

Please rest assured that if and when TTIP comes before the European Parliament I will vote against it on the basis that UK trade policy should be decided by the UK government and not the EU. If within the agreement itself there are amendments that remove powers from the EU and return them to the national state I will vote for them.

No links.

These are from E-mails sent to me by my MEPs.

I questioned them all on their voting intentions.

Point one: kudos for getting of your metaphorical arse and chasing this up.

Two: thanks for sharing it here.

Three: TTIP is a corporate c**k sucking exercise.

Four: regarding the EU, see point three above.

Five: vote "no" in the referendum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I currently love working my bollocks off for a CEO earning a salary of 2.5 million dollars, a bonus of 25 million dollars and stocks worth 10 million dollars.

Meanwhile i earn an ok salary, but nothing special, it enables me to live in a 3 bedroom ex-council house with an okay car with a great wife and a beautiful baby boy.

However, i don't think my CEO does that much more work than I, he didn't create the company, he was elected to become CEO. But the fact it would take me 1250 years to earn what he has earned last year is somewhat distasteful.

Guess i should have become a bollock sucking, golf playing, guy from a upper class background, accountant in a Southern US state.

Ahh well, I'll be quiet and be appreciative of it, hope he has a good life though.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

stop **** moaning and work more hours if you don't have the money for that medicine you need

**** me, you don't see the good Chinese worker bees moaning

work harder, faster, longer, or we'll stick you and your kids on a credit blacklist

now, be good citizen and pass me the foie gras, I'm starving hungry, I've been selling your future all day

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...
Â