More Power to Corporations to Attack Nations
CAPITALISM, 9 July 2012
by Public Citizen – TRANSCEND Media Service
Extreme Foreign Investor Rights & Private Enforcement Would Promote Offshoring, Attacks Against Our Laws
Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “free trade” agreement, foreign firms would gain an array of privileges:
- Rights to acquire land, natural resources, factories without government review
- Risks and costs of offshoring to low wage countries eliminated
- Special guaranteed “minimum standard of treatment” for relocating firms
- Compensation for loss of “expected future profits” from health, labor environmental, laws (indirect or “regulatory” takings compensation)
- Right to move capital without limits
- New rights cover vast definition of investment: intellectual property, permits, derivatives
- Ban performance requirements, domestic content rules. Absolute ban, not only when applied to investors from signatory countries
A major goal of U.S. multinational corporations for the TPP is to impose on more countries a set of extreme for-eign investor privileges and rights and their private enforcement through the notorious “investor-state” system. This system elevates individual corporations and investors to equal standing with each TPP signatory country’s government- and above all of us citizens.
Under this regime, foreign investors can skirt domestic courts and laws, and sue governments directly before tribunals of three private sector lawyers operating under World Bank and UN rules to demand taxpayer compensation for any domestic law that investors believe will diminish their “expected future profits.” Over $675 million has been paid to foreign investors under U.S. trade pacts, while over $12 billion in claims are pending on environmental, safety, and public health policies under U.S. trade deals.
Explore the resources below to understand what this means for our environmental and public interest laws.
Learn More
- (03/13/12) Article: Wallach in The American Prospect: A Stealth Attack on Democratic Governance
- How TPP Investment Rules Undermine the Environment
- How TPP Investment Rules Undermine Essential Services
- How TPP Investment Rules Undermine Public health
- Report: Key Elements of Damaging U.S. Trade Agreement Investment Rules that Must Not Be Replicated in TPP
- Chart: Foreign Investor-State Cases & Claims under NAFTA & Other U.S. Trade Deals
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