The Latest Never Ending Adventures in Corporatism Via the TPP

From the Economic Populist:

The Latest Never Ending Adventures in Corporatism Via the TPP –  Wikileaks has published more secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement documents, revealing more and more how the United States represents large corporations and not the citizens of the nation.  The Huffington Post published a large front page story is on the Trans-Pacific Partnershiptrade treaty.

Seems Obama is hell bent on making sure large multinational pharmaceutical companies maintain a monopoly on prescription drugs and their prices.  Another intent is to override international as well as national law by supplanting current laws and courts via the TPP trade treaty terms.  The Obama administration is insisting on mandating new intellectual property rules in the treaty that would grant pharmaceutical companies long-term monopolies on new medications. As a result, companies can charge high prices without regard to competition from generic providers. 

The same article exposes just an astounding development in the TPP, a private international court which would then supersede current international law, all under the guise of trade.  One of the most controversial provisions in the talks includes new corporate empowerment language insisted upon by the U.S. government, which would allow foreign companies to challenge laws or regulations in a privately run international court.

Even within the confines of yet another bad trade deal, the United States stands alone as the bad guy negotiator.  This is quite a feat considering trade agreements are written by and for multinational corporations in the first place.  There is even a chart exposing how the United States stands alone in their demands for what is included in the TPP. In fact, a leaked chart detailing countries’ positions last month on the most contentious issues shows that the United States stands alone among TPP countries on 1 out of every 4 controversial issues. In each of these contentious areas, all other TPP countries that have taken a position have rejected U.S. demands. If adding issues in which the U.S. position is shared by just one or two of the 11 other negotiating partners, more than 40% of the unresolved issues constitute unpopular demands made by the United States, often at the behest of corporate interests