WikiLeaks and The Huffington Post
have raised all kinds of unshirted hell this morning by publishing a trove of documents relating to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the gigantic new trade agreement which was negotiated largely in secret -- unless, of course, you were a CEO or a lobbyist who worked for one -- and which the administration is seeking to "fast-track" through Congress so as to avoid the kind of public scrutiny to which deals like this rarely stand up. OK, that last part's me, but you get the point.
One of the most controversial provisions in the talks includes new corporate empowerment language insisted upon by the U.S. government, which would allow foreign companies to challenge laws or regulations in a privately run international court. Under World Trade Organization treaties, this political power to contest government law is reserved for sovereign nations. The U.S. has endorsed some corporate political powers in prior trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, but the scope of what laws can be challenged appears to be much broader in TPP negotiations.
The documents say pretty much what you'd expect them to say -- that the provisions of the TPP grant multinational corporations vast new powers and that, among these, are virtual veto-powers over local environmental and labor laws, and that the agreement is a virtual Christmas tree on which corporations have hung all of their fondest individual wishes regarding future profiteering. (
The drug companies seem particularly hopeful, which is to say incredibly greedy.) Large financial institutions seem happy, too.
