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Secretive Trans Pacific Partnership can put USA companies above national laws

Audio  The secret trade deal that could let multinationals sue states ’ http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/trade-talks/4689004   RN Breakfast  Presented by Fran Kelly 14 May 2013  Cathy Van Extel The latest round of negotiations for the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership starts today in Lima, Peru. The TPP is a multinational trade deal involving 12 countries, including the US and Australia, and if finalised it will account for 40 per cent of the global economy. Cathy Van Extel reports that the outcome of the Australian federal election is likely to have a big impact on the terms of the deal. The latest round of negotiations for the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership is kicking off in the Peruvian capital of Lima today.

The TPP is a multinational trade deal involving 12 countries including the US and Australia. If finalised it’ll account for 40 per cent of the global economy.

The trade talks are heavily shrouded in secrecy—and critics are concerned the TPP will benefit multinational corporations at the expense of existing labour and social protections.

The US has been pushing for an agreement by October this year and the Australian federal election is likely to have a big impact on the terms of the major trade deal. The wide ranging trade deal has been under negotiation since 2010 behind closed doors, and that’s a worry for critics like Jane Kelsey, professor of law from the University of Auckland and an activist academic.

She says it’s being rushed through with no public scrutiny.There’s going to be a huge amount of political pressure brought to bear on the negotiators in this round because they have set an informal deadline for signing a deal, or at least something, at the APEC leaders’ meeting in Bali in October,’ Professor Kelsey says. ‘However, the negotiations are still stuck on a number of key points and so there will be quite a bit of public posturing and quite a lot of pressure behind the scenes.’

The TPP involves the US, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. Japan has recently asked to join—although it won’t sit at the negotiating table until the next round of talks in July. Notably, China has not been invited.

One of the key sticking points is Australia’s opposition to the US push for an investor-state dispute settlement clause.An investor-state dispute settlement clause gives a multinational company which believes its investment has been harmed by a government decision the right to sue a state in an international arbitration tribunal—which would have the power to overrule local laws.

In recent years these arbitration tribunals have broadened the range of potential claims that can be made against a state and this has led to a rapid increase of investor interest in this form of dispute settlement. Multinationals can now sue states for damages if legislative changes may make their profits lower than expected.

Critics are also concerned that arbitrations are carried out in secret by trade lawyers who earn income from the parties and are not accountable to the public or required to take into account broader constitutional and international law human rights norms. Under the TPP it’s proposed tribunal hearings would be held in public.In 2011 the Australian government issued a new trade policy, in which it ruled out supporting such clauses, arguing they ran the risk of giving foreign business greater legal rights than domestic businesses (who must operate within local law)……..

Another contentious issue under negotiation is intellectual property and copyright, which could have far-reaching impacts on Australia’s pharmaceutical benefits scheme, and access to material on the internet.

Electronic Frontiers Australia, which represents internet users, says while the trade talks are being kept secret, there’s concern US corporations are pushing a well known agenda for heavy restrictions and criminal sanctions.Many of those controls already exist but we are certainly seeing attempts to criminalise acts which we would argue probably don’t deserve criminal sanctions,’ EFA’s CEO John Lawrence says. ‘The general thrust of these things does really hamper innovation and development of content outside the US.’

Mr Lawrence says that while Australia has its own well balanced review of copyright underway, the TPP has the ability to override and scupper that process.

‘Things like TPP (which of course the negotiation’s secret), have the potential to stop any reform there, or constrain any reform, that Australia as a sovereign entity may choose to take.’ http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/trade-talks/4689004

May 16, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, AUSTRALIA, secrets,lies and civil liberties