US Attempts to Seize Australia's Sovereignty via Trade Treaties

[Rev.Cambeul]

The Australian  parliament has issued a harsh verdict on the Trans Pacific Partnership  trade deal currently being negotiated, calling it an "attack [on]  internet freedoms" and seriously lacking in oversight, in a report  released Monday.

The "Blind Agreement" report —  by the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee —  criticized the secrecy of the negotiations crafting the deal, which  would bind 12 Pacific Rim countries.

The report denounces the "all-or-nothing choice" that Parliament is  given to approve or reject a deal, the detail of which they can't  examine until after the deal is passed.

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"This does not provide an adequate level of oversight and scrutiny,"  the report reads. "Parliament should play a constructive role  during negotiations and not merely rubber-stamp agreements that have  been negotiated behind closed doors."

The only parts of the TPP drafts that have been made public so far  have come to light via WikiLeaks, which published leaked partial  drafts — including a chapter on intellectual property rights.

That chapter alone has the power to "attack internet freedoms and  criminalise downloading," said Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, a member  of the committee that wrote the Blind Agreement report and an outspoken  critic of the TPP.
 
"We know from other leaks the TPP covers everything from giving  America the right to put Australian Internet users under surveillance,  to giving multinational companies the rights to sue governments for the  laws they make," said Senator Ludlam.
   
The provisions that outline "investor state dispute settlement"  (ISDS) — in which a corporation can sue a foreign government over their  democratically enacted regulations (labor or environmental protections,  for example) — form the basis of some of the strongest outcry over the  TPP.

Ludlam called the ISDS provisions a "trojan horse" and cited an  example of the abuse of these types of disputes from Australia's own  history.
"The tobacco company Philip Morris is currently using ISDS clauses  in an obscure Hong Kong — Australia investment agreement to sue the  Australian government for millions of dollars in 'damages' cause by our  plain packaging legislation," Ludlam's website  explains. "Our government has spent who knows how many millions of tax  dollars fighting the company in an international court for the last four  years."


Big Pharma, Biological Patents Boosted by TPP

There are also concerns that the TPP will do damage to Australia's public health system.

Deborah Gleeson of LaTrobe University and Dr. Ruth Lopert of the  George Washington University, writing in the Brisbane Times, argue that  both IP regulations and ISDS could harm Australians' health care. The  US, for example, is seeking a 12-year period of "data protection"  under the TPP for biologic products derived from living organisms.
   
"Patents for minor variations of existing medicines, extensions  of patents beyond the 20-year norm, and requirements to link marketing  approval to patent status are all elements of the US system that drives  massive pharmaceutical expenditure," and which could be forced on TPP  signatory nations, Gleeson and Lopert argue.

"Under proposed Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions  litigious US corporations could sue over for example, policies designed  to promote affordable access to healthcare or protect public health."


Fast-Tracking TPP Paves Way for Deal Approval in US

Americans have also mounted a vocal opposition to the "fast-tracking"  of the trade deal of the type the Australian report takes issue with — a  process that would allow Congress an up or down vote on a final draft  of the TPP, but would not allow them to amend any parts of it.

US Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, however, has expressed her  disbelief over the level of secrecy, even for the Congress members  supposedly tasked with approving or rejecting the deal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OldN3uniNvw

Obama Signs Fast-Track Authority Legislation to Advance Free Trade

"Follow this:" Boxer recently told the Senate, "You can only take a  few of your staffers who happen to have a security clearance, because,  God knows why, this is secure, this is classified," she said.

"The guard says...'You can take notes, but you have to give them back  to me, and I'll put them in a file.' So I said: 'Wait a minute. I'm  going to take notes and then you're going to take my notes away from me  and then you're going to have them in a file, and you can read my notes?  Not on your life.'"

Congress passed that fast track authority, and the president signed  it into law, last week. For the contentious vote to go through, Obama  relied on Republican support — alienating elements of the Democratic  base that support robust labor and environmental protections.

Bernie Sanders — running for the Democratic nomination to be the  party's 2016 presidential candidate — is hoping to scoop up some  of those disaffected Democratic voters with his opposition to the TPP  and similar deals.

"In my view, US trade policies for the last 35, 40 years have been a  disaster," Sanders told the Guardian during a campaign stop. "They have  resulted, and I think it has been objectively documented, in the loss  of millions of decent paying jobs, and a race to the bottom which is  lowering wages."

The approval of the trade promotion authority mean the deal — which  would cover an estimated 40% of global trade — has taken a significant  step forwards.

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