'Progressive' Coalition for Fast Track and TPP Appears from Nowhere

[riobravo]

62. Why no mention herein re the ISDS clause of TPP?

big elephant in the room
ISDS: INVESTOR-STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT
obama's sneaky treasonous sellout of American sovereignty
to his corporate Wall Street cronies, domestic and foreign.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/07/22/business/farmers-stealing-tpp-spotlight-from-other-key-issues/#.VQtIE44RT60

“ISDS clauses allow foreign investors the right to sue governments directly in offshore private investment tribunals, bypassing the courts and also allowing a ‘second bite’ if the investors do not like the results of domestic court decisions,” the state legislators said in a letter to U.S. negotiators.

“Although the ISDS tribunal has no power to nullify U.S. federal, state and local laws, in practice, when a country loses an investor, it will change the offending law, or pay damages, or both,” they said.

In a separate letter, the jurists warned that including an ISDS provision would lead to a massive increase in corporate claims against attempts by governments to create environmental and natural resource policies, which they point out is already occurring under existing bilateral free trade agreements.

“Over $675 million (¥68 billion) has been paid out under U.S. FTAs and bilateral investment treaties alone, 70 percent of which pertained to challenges to governments’ natural resource and environmental policies, not to traditional expropriations,” the letter said.

Public Citizen, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that opposes the TPP in general, said that Japan’s entry this week to the ongoing negotiations multiplies the threat posed to the public interest in both countries by including an ISDS clause.

“Expanding the investor-state dispute resolution mechanism to Japan through the TPP would expose the U.S. to an even greater surge of investor-state attacks,” Public Citizen said. “Similarly, Japan’s government would be exposed to a potential wave of investor-state cases from any of the more than 1,800 U.S.-based corporations that own more than 7,100 subsidiaries in Japan.”