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The tribunals operate above our domestic courts and have very little oversight unless you trust the UN. Then they force the government to pay for lost profit. I'm assuming that the payment would come out of our treasury.
This is one of the biggest deals. These are known as ISDS clauses, or investor-state-dispute-settlement. As an example of these there was Phillip Morris vs Uruguay. Phillip Morris is headquartered in Switzerland who has a similar treaty with Uruguay. After Uruguay passed some basic public health smoking legislation (limiting advertisement, packaging standards, no smoking in public places, etc) Phillip Morris was able to sue the country.
These courts literally entitle corporations to profit. If a nation decides to do something that could interfere with that profit they can sue the state. If the state loses, not only is the corporation allowed to overturn their law - but the state must also compensate the corporation for lost profits with taxpayer money. In this specific case Phillip Morris, after dragging it through the tribunal for 6 years (and the country was spending one can only imagine how much taxpayer money defending themselves), ultimately lost - but the fact this was even possible is ridiculous.
These already exist, to some degree, with things like NAFTA but the TPP was going to greatly expand the scope and scale of these. They effectively write corporate pandering into law.
These courts literally entitle corporations to profit.
Sounds like some crazy talk doesn't it? If this kept on going, then the corporations would quite literally begin to run the courts/government. Imagine facebook/Zuckerberg getting this power.
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[–] badkangaroo 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
The TPP also includes a Trade Tribunal
Of many things TPP allows "to exempt foreign corporations from our laws and regulations, placing the resolution of any disputes as to the applicability of those matters to foreign business in the hands of an international arbitration tribunal overseen by the Secretary General of the United Nations." [http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/11736-tpp-secret-trade-agreement-puts-international-tribunal-above-us-law]
Why is the tribunal bad?
"These pacts also empower foreign investors to bypass domestic courts and sue governments for cash damages in international tribunals." [http://www.citizen.org/documents/tpp-investment-fixes.pdf]
The tribunals operate above our domestic courts and have very little oversight unless you trust the UN. Then they force the government to pay for lost profit. I'm assuming that the payment would come out of our treasury.
[–] rwbj 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
This is one of the biggest deals. These are known as ISDS clauses, or investor-state-dispute-settlement. As an example of these there was Phillip Morris vs Uruguay. Phillip Morris is headquartered in Switzerland who has a similar treaty with Uruguay. After Uruguay passed some basic public health smoking legislation (limiting advertisement, packaging standards, no smoking in public places, etc) Phillip Morris was able to sue the country.
These courts literally entitle corporations to profit. If a nation decides to do something that could interfere with that profit they can sue the state. If the state loses, not only is the corporation allowed to overturn their law - but the state must also compensate the corporation for lost profits with taxpayer money. In this specific case Phillip Morris, after dragging it through the tribunal for 6 years (and the country was spending one can only imagine how much taxpayer money defending themselves), ultimately lost - but the fact this was even possible is ridiculous.
These already exist, to some degree, with things like NAFTA but the TPP was going to greatly expand the scope and scale of these. They effectively write corporate pandering into law.
[–] badkangaroo 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Sounds like some crazy talk doesn't it? If this kept on going, then the corporations would quite literally begin to run the courts/government. Imagine facebook/Zuckerberg getting this power.