© Robert Galbraith / Reuters
The top United Nations expert on human rights has called on the 12 nations considering the Trans-Pacific Partnership to reject the massive trade agreement since in its current form it "is out of step with today's international human rights regime."
Acknowledging global opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) because of the agreement's "undemocratic pedigree,"
Alfred de Zayas, the UN's independent expert on the promotion of democratic and equitable international order, said the largest trade agreement in decades "is fundamentally flawed and should not be signed or ratified unless provision is made to guarantee the regulatory space of States."
"I am concerned that notwithstanding enormous opposition by civil society worldwide, twelve countries are about to sign an agreement, which is the product of secret negotiations without multi-stakeholder democratic consultation," de Zayas
said in a statement ahead of a February 4 gathering in New Zealand of trade representatives for the 12 Pacific Rim nations involved in the secretive TPP talks.
"Trade agreements are not 'stand-alone' legal regimes, but must conform with fundamental principles of international law, including transparency and accountability," de Zayas said. [Trade agreements] must not delay, circumvent, undermine or make impossible the fulfillment of human rights treaty obligations."
De Zayas was referring to indications that the TPP will come with a private tribunal system, or an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) process, in which multinational corporate entities will be granted broad powers to challenge sovereign nations' government regulations, rules, actions and court rulings if those laws or policies are perceived as cutting in on intellectual property values and profits.The trade pact currently involves Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam. These nations together comprise 40 percent of the global economy. Other nations, such as Thailand and Cambodia, have expressed interest in eventually participating in the agreement.
Any economic benefits of the deal will go to corporations, not workers in any of the participating nations, opponents say. Labor unions, among many others, have lined up to oppose the TPP based on concerns over a number of issues, including currency manipulation, environmental and health protections, food safety, pharmaceutical monopolies, offshoring of jobs, internet privacy, government transparency, and local governmental control.One of the most contentious sections of the TPP is the intellectual property chapter, which has been negotiated away from the public gaze - while
major corporations and trade groups have had access and involvement - for the last five and a half years.
"If TPP is ratified, people in the Pacific-Rim countries would have to live by the rules in this leaked text," said Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen's Global Access to Medicines Program, following a leaked release of the pact's intellectual property chapter by Wikileaks in October. "The new monopoly rights for big pharmaceutical firms would compromise access to medicines in TPP countries. The TPP would cost lives."Leaked drafts of TPP negotiations have
suggested that corporations would be allowed to
sue governments in private courts over lost profits due to regulation, elevating corporate entities to the status held by sovereign nations.
De Zayas said the ISDS system would be "fundamentally imbalanced and unjust, since investors can sue governments whereas governments cannot sue investors before these ad hoc tribunals."
"Trade and investment disputes can be settled under the rule of law by recourse to national jurisdictions and/or State-to-State mechanisms," said the UN human rights expert.
Should the TPP go into effect, "its compatibility with international law should be challenged before the International Court of Justice," de Zayas said, adding that "if a public referendum were held in all twelve countries concerned, it will be solidly rejected."
The UN expert also criticized the "outdated" model and processes of modern trade agreements like TPP, which he said should be replaced by "a new generation of holistic trade agreements for the 21st century, which would incorporate human rights and development into their provisions."
Is the TPP, et al; Corporate ‘America’s’ Desperate ‘Extortion’; Join in U.S. Increasing Avaricious $17+ trillion Debts to harmless taxpayers, or, Scorched Earth, Global Depression? Harmless U.S. taxpayers wait for the ‘shoe’ to drop as ‘Debts’ comes home to ‘Roost’?
TPP, et al, base for future changes for Global Corporate Economy; your tax dollars to fund their enterprises & value of shares with No Corp. Liabilities & for their future considerations…
Is ‘The Submission’ to The Supreme Court of Canada, et al, ‘unnecessarily’ delaying the TPP, CETA, et al?
* What happened to new Canadian PM Trudeau’s (Corporate Canada East) promise to read, understand, share his understanding of TPP with consultation & questions from the taxpayers? Have Trudeau & Freeland read the TPP?
* Should Politicians Have to Sully Their ‘Beliefs’ & Sales Pitches with ‘Sordid’ Facts that Come from Actually Reading & Understanding Global Treaties/’Arrangements’? Just the Facts; ‘We’, The People can Draw our Own Conclusions? Unless they’ve been paid via ‘future considerations’…
2 Republican Senators Admit that They Have read the TPP.
Congress/Parliaments; Deluded, or, Deluding; 'IGNORAMUS et IGNORABIMUS' (I do not know & I will Not Know)?
‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodies’? (Who Will Guard the Guards?)
* TPP Costs harmless Taxpayers. Why not make Global Corporate Partners pay for ‘Privilege’ of joining TPP, et al & Corporations pay TPP Tribunal’s punitive penalties NOT the harmless taxpayers?
* Do ‘We’ want ‘Good Corporate Citizens’, or, more of Corporate Global assocs. to Punish the harmless taxpayers & complete the Info Deprivation?
* After New Zealand’s PM admitted that medicines will cost more, have the citizens of New Zealand & other TPP nations also noticed similar moves like Canadian Prime Minister Harper below? ‘To help pay for the harmless taxpayers ‘guilty transgressions’ against Global Corporations in Canada, Prime Minister Harper has recently cut the funding for health care by $36 billion dollars’. (please see article below)
* There is a great deal more to the ‘Foreign’ Treaties/’Arrangements’ (TPP, CETA, TTIP, et al), than Tobacco Carve-out, Piggy-backing Autos & Parts from China to N. America &/or the EU via Japan, Gouging Drug Prices, Fish, IP, Privatizing Public Health Care, Dairy products & Pork;
Why didn’t Someone Tell me that the Punitive Penalties of the TPP’s Tribunals would come off the Top of Signatory Governments’ Budgets & Not the Bottom after All other Expenditures? Corporations & Shareholders First and the lil’ guy gets left overs, if any.
• Can Piggy-backing 80% of products from China, BRICS, et al, on to Canadian products exported to the U.S. really lower the taxes of Canadian citizens by 7% if Corporate Canada increases our Taxes (Global Corporate Tribunal Penalties) by 2- 12%+?
• Canada’s Remorseless Prime Minister (Pay for The WAD Accord's
Compensations, etc.) & Depriving Citizens, et al, of Due Diligence Info?
• There is no melodramatic ‘Boom, or, Bust’ in the TPP & the other Global
Corporate Treaties/’Arrangements; it’s just a huge Shift of Liabilities from
Corporations to the harmless lil’ guy and taking Huge amounts from the lil’ guy via Punitive Penalties ‘giving’ it to Shareholders as ‘Profits’;
Tort Reform on Steroids is Tort Abolishment.
• How long have Global Corporate Associates been ‘Passing’ Legislation in
Anticipation of Suing Once Ratified? ‘Trickle’ Up & Out Economics.
• Corporate America, after its 2008 ‘Tactical Probe’ into Deregulation & Its Sub sequential Buying Short on its Global Recession, is Anxious for Its Legitimized & Globalized (TPP/TTIP/CETA) ‘Full Invasion’; HSBC’s money laundering, Enron’s insider trading, Chase Bank’s fraud, etc. Corporate Canada & its Traditional Big 3 Political Parties are desperate to increase its play time under the ‘skirts’ of Corporate U.S. in the International Glitter Game.
• TPP, TTIP, CETA; Roll-back NAFTA, et al, Tribunal Penalties (ISDS) paid by Canadian lil’ guy; $125 M & $25 M legal fees to Reneging Corporate America. U.S. Pays ‘0’. ‘You Should have Known’; President Bush. Prohibit Future TPP, et al, ISDSs.
• But, will the lil' guy get 6 years to read, consider, discuss & improve upon (with lawyers paid by Global Corporate Assocs.)?
***
FULL Article, see; davidehsmith.wordpress.com