Julian Assange On TPP: Only 5 Of 29 Sections Are About "Traditional Trade," Covers "Essentially Every Aspect Of A Modern Economy"
Posted on May 28, 2015
Julian Assange On TPP: Only 5 Of 29 Sections Are About
"Traditional Trade," Covers "Essentially Every Aspect Of A
Modern Economy"
JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS: First of all, it is the
largest ever international economic treaty that has ever been negotiated, very
considerably larger than NAFTA. It is mostly not about trade, only 5 of the 29
Chapters are about traditional trade.
The others are about regulating the internet, and what
information internet service providers have to collect, they have to hand it
over to companies under certain circumstances, the regulation of labor
conditions, regulating the way you can favor local industry, regulating the
hospital, health care system, privatization of hospitals, so essentially every
aspect of a modern economy, even banking services are in the TPP.
So that is erecting and embedding new ultramodern
neoliberal structure over U.S. law and the laws of other countries. And putting
it in treaty form.
By putting it in a treaty form, there are 14 countries
involved, that means it is very hard to overturn, so if there is a desire, a
democratic desire to do it on a different path. For example, to introduce more
public transport. Then you can't easily change the TPP treaty, because you have
to go back to the other nations involved.
Now looking at that example, what if the government or a
state government decides it wants to build a hospital somewhere, and there is a
private hospital has been erected nearby.
Well the TPP gives the constructor of the private
hospital the right to sue the government over the expect loss, the loss in
expected future profits. This is an expected future loss, this is not an actual
loss that has been sustained, this is a claim about the future.
We know from similar instruments where governments can be
sued over free trade treaties, that that is used to construct a chilling effect
on environmental and health regulation laws. For example, Togo, Australia,
Uruguay are all being sued by tobacco company Phillip Morris to prevent them
from introducing health warnings on cigarette packaging...
It is not even an even playing field, lets say you were
going to let companies, make it easier for companies to sue governments, maybe
that is right, maybe the government is too powerful and companies should have
the right to sue them in certain circumstances.
But it is only multinationals that get this right. U.S.
companies that operate in the U.S. in relation to investments that happen in
the U.S. will not have this right.
Julian Assange's Wikileaks website is the only place
where you can read one of the 29 secret chapters of this treaty. Current TPP
negotiation member states are the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada,
Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei.
The TPP is the largest economic treaty in history, including countries that
represent more than 40 per cent of the world´s GDP.
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