Text of the TPP

Now that the full text of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been released, the furor over it has increased. It looks as though it's worse than what had been revealed earlier. It gives the corporation the power to sue governments almost at will. For example, if a province puts a moratorium on fracking, corporations can sue; if a community tries to stop a coal mine, corporations can overrule them. It looks  like our food safety rules on labeling, pesticides, or additives are in jeopardy.

Further, from Chris Hedges:

The TPP removes legislative authority from Congress and the White House on a range of issues. Judicial power is often surrendered to three-person trade tribunals in which only corporations are permitted to sue. Workers, environmental and advocacy groups and labor unions are blocked from seeking redress in the proposed tribunals. The rights of corporations become sacrosanct. The rights of citizens are abolished.

A quote from Ralph Nader, “It allows corporations to bypass our three branches of government to impose enforceable sanctions by secret tribunals. These tribunals can declare our labor, consumer and environmental protections [to be] unlawful, non-tariff barriers subject to fines for noncompliance. The TPP establishes a transnational, autocratic system of enforceable governance in defiance of our domestic laws.”

It's a huge document, 5,544 pages to be agreed upon by 12 countries comprising nearly 40 percent of global output.