Julian Assange Reveals Real Intentions Behind TPP

WikiLeaks has published leaked chapters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is a secretive trade agreement among twelve Pacific Rim countries, including the United States. It would allow them to cover 40 percent of the global economy.

The agreement was reached just this past October, after seven years of negotiations.

However; as these matters of economic concern continue to be negotiated amongst the countries, details continue to be hidden from the public.

Meanwhile WikiLeaks discloses information, like the “Investment Chapter,” which discusses the US negotiators’ motive to allow corporations to sue governments if their laws disrupt future profits a company has declared.

Assange says the plan could “chill” the approval of health and environmental administrations.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! sat down at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for an exclusive interview with Assange to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the US debate of what WikiLeaks has revealed concerning the treaty.

Assange says of the partnership.

It is very well guarded from the press and the majority of people and even from congressmen. But 600 U.S. companies are part of the process and have been given access to various parts of the #TPP. Essentially, every aspect of the modern economy, even banking services, are in the TPP.

And so, that is erecting and embedding new, ultra-modern, neoliberal structure in U.S. law and in the laws of the other countries that are participating, and is putting it in a treaty form. And by putting it in a treaty form, that means—with 14 countries involved, means it’s very, very hard to overturn.”

How Corporations Can Use the TPP

To provide an example of how corporations can sue governments, Assange provides this example:

What if the government or a state government decides it wants to build a hospital somewhere, and there’s a private hospital, has been erected nearby? Well, the TPP gives the constructor of the private hospital the right to sue the government for expected losses in expected future profits.

This is expected future profits. This is not an actual loss that has been sustained, where there’s desire to be compensated; this is a claim about the future.

And to put this idea into practice, he discusses how similar measures have already been taken to affect environmental and health regulation laws, including in Togo, Australia, and Uruguay, which are all being sued by tobacco companies in order to keep health warnings off of cigarette packages.

Maybe the government is too powerful, and companies should have a right to sue the government under various circumstances. But it’s only multinationals that get this right

Now, it’s not so easy to get up these cases and win them. However, the chilling effect, the concern that there might be such a case, is severe. Each one of these cases, on average, governments spend more than $10 million for each case, to defend it, even successfully.

So, if you have, you know, a city council or a state considering legislation, and then there’s a threat from one of these multinationals about expected future profits, they know that even if they have the law on their side, even if this TPP is on their side, they can expect to suffer.

Below is a video of Robert Reich, an American political economist, and professor who served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, talking about the deal. He was also Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

Written by Alexa Erickson of www.collective-evolution.com
Source: Collective Evolution
Edited by: oye.news

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