The TTIP is widely described as a trade agreement. But while in the past trade agreements sought to address protectionism, now they seek to address protection(2). In other words, once they promoted free trade by removing trade taxes (tariffs), now they promote the interests of transnational capital by downgrading the defence of human health, the natural world, labour rights and the poor and vulnerable from predatory corporate practices. ... The UK government, like that of the US and 13 other EU members(1), wants to set up a separate judicial system, exclusively for the use of corporations. While the rest of us must take our chances in the courts, corporations across the EU and US will be allowed to sue governments before a tribunal of corporate lawyers. They will be able to challenge the laws they don’t like, and seek massive compensation if these are deemed to affect their “future anticipated profits”. ... Corporations, like natural persons, can use the courts to defend their interests. But, under current treaties, investor-state dispute settlement lets them apply instead to offshore tribunals operating in secret, without such basic safeguards as third-party standing, judicial review and rights of appeal. As Colin Crouch notes, this is not just post-democracy, but “post-law.”(6) ... I believe that we can win this. We have won it before, when the treaty they now call TTIP was the Multilateral Agreement on Investment(18,19). After a massive public response it was defeated in 1998. Now they are trying again, with a different name. Already, two petitions have gathered 2.5 million signatures between them(20,21). In response, the EU has frantically been making concessions. For the first time in its history, it has made its negotiating positions public(22). It has launched a consultation on investor-state dispute settlement (though still, after 6 months, not published the results)(23)*; promised protections for public services(24) and proposed to improve the offshore arbitration system(25) – while still failing to explain what’s wrong with the courts we already possess. These are desperate concessions from an organisation that knows the window is closing: if it can’t secure an agreement before the next US election, TTIP is probably finished. So keep marching, keep signing, keep joining the campaigns that have come together under the Stop TTIP banner(26). Ask yourself whether, in an age of ecocide, food banks and financial collapse, we need more protection from predatory corporate practices or less. This is a reckless, unjustified destruction of our rights. We can defeat it.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 10:59:26 +0000
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