Good question. First, don’t you think that we SHOULD be able to know this stuff? And if not us, shouldn’t our representatives be able to know this stuff? Well they can’t. I think that sucksl. Denying Fast Track authority will mean that we will have time to read what is actually inside this deal. What we do know is based on early information and from leaked documents. And what we have found is nasty. Rep Alan Grayson got to see just one part of it and he escorted into a room to read a draft but could make no copies. He says it’s a worst than what we thought…
The provisions for the un-elected tribunal, and the way that it would have authority, is very much like NAFTA in which US companies have to conform to the deal and the Supreme Court has no say. And, when a company out of the foreign company sues the US under the trade agreement and wins, the US tax payer pays the price.
So say for example that you are a shrimper in Louisiana and Vietnam starts shipping more shrimp to the US under the TPP. Under the TPP food safety guidelines, as long as the Shrimp meet VIETNAM’s food safety regulations the US has to accept it as safe. Now China can use a Vietnamese companies as cut out to ship farmed shrimp via Vietnam, and we all know how great China’s food safety regs are.
BTW this information came from a conversation I had with the people at Public Citizen doing research on this. The shipping of Chinese food and other goods via other Asian countries is already happening and has taken a big bite out of the US shrimp market.
If you complain and say, I don’t want this food because it isn’t USDA approved, the company can sue saying the US isn’t following the rules of the agreement. The agreement says “As long as this food meets the standard of the Country of origin, it must be accepted by the signers of the agreement.” This kind of deal has already happened with NAFTA and some Canadian companies (in another area, not shrimp) but the same concept applies here.
And, as Ross would say, Here’s the kicker. If the company thinks that they can make a profit and they are prevented from making a profit by the US not accepting the goods as part of the agreement they can still sue. They don’t even have to ever ship something. And the US Tax payers would have to pick up the bill.
Now can I verify all this is CURRENT in the TPP? No. But it is modeled after NAFTA and leaked early drafts have language like this. So at LEAST we should be able to see EVERYTHING in the agreement and not rush to set it up on Fast Track.
BTW, you want to know another part they aren’t talking about? Financial loopholes! The Big Bankers want to use agreements like the TPP to avoid US regulations on financial transactions. One more part of the the bill we aren’t allows to see, but if it passes then they will have that agreement inserted in the constitution as part of trades and treaty agreements.
