Have you heard of TTIP? Most people have no idea what it is. It’s the Trans Atlantic Investment and Trade Partnership. It’s all about removing “non tariff trade barriers”. In other words, allowing businesses to undermine government. They put aside the idea that Democratically elected governments SHOULD reflect the will of the people. More often now these purchased government officials represent the lobbyists who’ve bought them. That must be remembered as context for the remaining explanation.
Think about a dark, smokey room, closed doors, full of billionaires and politicians from the EU conducting these “negotiations”. That’s not much exaggeration. It’s what’s happening right now and it is the greatest threat to regional government sovereignty in the history of planet earth. The premise is simple from the corporate perspective: removing regional legal barriers to international trade will result in prosperity for big business and therefore prosperity to all. An international “trickle”. Except this is pissing on everyone and everything for profit, not just the working poor. The international version of “What’s best for Wall Street is best for Main Street”, the ongoing farce wrapped inside corporate PR lies.
Imagine a country having rules in place about GMO’s, environmental protections, addictive substances such as cigarettes voted on and supported democratically by the voters of that region or country. Then understand that a built in component of the TTIP, an ISDS or Investor State Dispute Settlement clause, would allow corporations to file suit against a government for imposing laws that impact a corporations profits. That’s right, a direct mechanism for international corporations to undermine democratically enacted laws for consumer, environmental and economic protections. It’s ugly. Real ugly and many a pro-business corporatist will stop at nothing to proclaim this a benefit. Really, allowing corporations to over ride local and regional government regulations and protections a benefit? I don’t give one damn how they try to candy coat that BS. It stinks.
Again, these negotiations are all taking place very much in secret. Recently the BBC questioned this transparency and the only pro corporatist panel response was “transparency could help businesses decide”. That infuriated me. How about this… Screw your big business and your single track profiteering mind! Profit seems to be the only thing these people can correlate anything to. The transparency is needed for the human beings these negotiations will inflict havoc upon. In case the smart ass, pro corporate geniuses haven’t noticed corporate profits do not translate into jobs or a more stable economy for the middle class, they enrich the 2%. The European estimates show 600K jobs lost to TTIP. European farmers will be undermined as TTIP lowers import standards for US foods while they must adhere to local laws. The will of the people is going to be undermined by the will of corporate leaders and profiteers who will stop at nothing, including killing people, making others destitute and destroying the environment all in the name of a return to shareholders. This is not an exaggeration.
It’s noted that 97% of European consumer consults reject TTIP. Ninety seven f*#king percent. Yet they move ahead with these “negotiations”. Why? Corporate influence.
The counter argument in favor of ISDS is that corporations should be able to invest in foreign lands without the threat of new laws undermining their profitability. Governments see this as a way to entice multinational corporations. In other words, they want to negate international investment risk and insure future corporate profits. Too big too fail, tax payer bailouts, ISDS – all mechanisms distorting what they refer to as a “free market” in the name of sought after, insured revenue and profits.
How much longer is the world going to stand by and let the wealthy international corporations tear down all consumer protection barriers to insure profit? Not long from now we will literally be paying taxes to insure corporations and industries do not fail and that shareholders are guaranteed returns. Workers, humans, the environment, be damned. To these short sighted fools it’s ALL about profit, all the time. This is not just unsustainable, it’s f*#king ludicrous and self deprecating. It’s a miscalculated destruction of a world wide consumer base over the long term.
When you hear anything about globalization sold as beneficial remember that LOCAL is best. LOCAL wins. We cannot continue to hand over the will of the people in LOCAL communities to big business so their shareholders are insured profits. I don’t know how these corporatist pigs can sleep at night after worshiping at the altar of the dollar every day.