Transparency Denied in Globalization and Trade

The U.S. government is currently negotiating two huge new “free trade” agreements behind closed doors – deals modeled after the failed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) pact that sent hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs overseas, exacerbated income inequality and empowered foreign corporations to demand taxpayer compensation for health and environmental policies.

If you haven’t heard much about these sweeping NAFTA-style pacts, there’s a good reason: the Obama administration and the corporate lobby backing these deals have made a concerted effort to hide them from public scrutiny. A small group of unelected negotiators directly advised by hundreds of corporations are negotiating these pacts, which would bind democratically-enacted non-trade policies, while the public and press are denied access to the draft texts. The administration intends to try to push the secretive pacts through Congress with an extraordinary procedure that would limit Congress’ oversight to an expedited vote with no amendments and limited debate.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: The Biggest Deal You Haven’t Heard Of

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a massive, controversial “free trade” agreement currently being pushed by big corporations and negotiated behind closed doors by officials from the United States and 11 other countries – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. In one fell swoop, this secretive deal could offshore millions of American jobs, increase income inequality, roll back Wall Street reforms, threaten Internet freedom, raise medicine prices, and expose the U.S. to unsafe food and products.

We only know about the TPP’s threats thanks to leaks – the public is not allowed to see the draft TPP text. Even members of Congress, after being denied the text for years, are now only provided limited access, unaccompanied by staff, and under the condition that they not share what they read with the rest of us. Meanwhile, more than 600 official corporate “trade advisors” have special access. The TPP has been under negotiation for five years, and the Obama administration wants to sign the deal by late 2014. But opposition to the TPP is growing at home and in many of the other countries involved.

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• The secret TPP text was finally unveiled, revealing the controversial trade terms that promote offshoring jobs and pushing down U.S. wages
   
• The final text of the TPP E-Commerce chapter reveals rules that could tie the hands of policymakers seeking to safeguard consumer and Internet user privacy, according to a Public Citizen analysis
   
• ​The latest leak of a secret TPP text reveals how the TPP would roll back the “May 10 Agreement” reforms brokered in 2007 between Democratic congressional leaders and the George W. Bush administration
   
• Leaked documents reveal that access to affordable cancer treatments in the U.S and 11 other countries would be delayed for years under the TPP
   
• More than 400 civil society groups blast the TPP for lack of transparency
   
• Leaked document reveals the Obama administration signed a special pact to keep all documents related to TPP negotiations a secret
   
• 132 members of Congress call for transparency and congressional consultation in TPP negotiations
   
• Bipartisan congressional letter to USTR Froman calls for increased transparency in TPP negotiations
   
• 36 freshmen in the House of Representatives call for increased transparency in in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations
   
• Leaked TPP documents reveal that the Obama administration is pushing to raise drug prices and limit internet freedom
   
• Leaked text of the TPP investment chapter reveals that the deal would empower foreign corporations to challenge public interest policies before extrajudicial tribunals and demand taxpayer compensation

The Trans-Atlantic “Free Trade” Agreement: A Backdoor Attack on Consumer and Environmental Safeguards

For over a decade, the largest U.S. and European banks, agribusinesses and other powerful industry groups have pushed for a new U.S. “trade” deal with Europe – the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA), which corporate proponents have tried to rebrand as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The deal would roll back safety standards, energy and climate policies and financial regulations on both sides of the Atlantic. Launched in July 2013, TAFTA negotiations are closed to the public, while official corporate “trade advisors” have special access.

In the official document outlining TAFTA, the Obama administration has made clear that TAFTA will not primarily target trade, but “behind-the-border” policies such as health, environmental and financial protections. U.S. and EU corporations call these safeguards on which we all rely “trade irritants,” and have asked that they be eliminated via TAFTA. Administration officials have thus far refused to allow the public or press to see the specific proposals being negotiated.

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• 100 Civil Society organizations denounce “opaque and exclusive” TAFTA negotiations, call for release of negotiating texts

• Dozens of leading civil society groups call for public consultations on TAFTA’s extraordinary proposed investor privileges

• Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue calls for open TAFTA negotiating process and release of texts, outlining the pact’s myriad threats to consumer interests

• Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue calls for open TAFTA negotiating process and release of texts, outlining the pact’s myriad threats to consumer interests

• TAFTA’s top ten threats to U.S. consumers

Fast Track: An Assault on Congressional Oversight

Fast Track was an extreme and rarely-used procedure that empowered executive branch negotiators advised by large corporations to skirt Congress and the public and use “trade” agreements to rewrite policies that affect our daily lives – from the stability of our jobs to the safety of our food. Fast Track allowed the executive branch to unilaterally select partner countries for “trade” pacts, decide the agreements’ contents, and then negotiate and sign the agreements – all before Congress had a vote on the matter. Normal congressional committee processes were forbidden, meaning that the executive branch was empowered to write lengthy legislation on its own with no review or amendments. These executive-authored bills altered wide swaths of U.S. law unrelated to trade – food safety, immigration visas, energy policy, medicine patents and more – to conform our domestic policies to each agreement’s requirements. Unlike any other legislation, both the House and Senate were required to vote on a Fast Tracked trade agreement within 90 days of the White House submitting it. No floor amendments were allowed and debate was limited.

As a candidate, President Obama said he would replace this anti-democratic process. But now he is asking Congress to grant him Fast Track’s extraordinary authority – in part to try to overcome growing public and congressional opposition to his controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) deals. To prevent an expansion of this unfair “trade” model, Congress must not allow the executive branch to once again gain Fast Track’s undemocratic powers.

Take action: Click here to Save the World and Stop Fast Track!

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• Over 550 groups urge opposition to Fast Track

• Widespread opposition to the Camp-Baucus Fast Track legislation

• Senators write Majority Leader Reid in opposition to Fast Track

• DeLauro, Miller lead 151 House Dems telling president they will not support outdated Fast Track for Trans-Pacific Partnership

• Camp-Baucus bill would revive controversial 2002 Fast Track mechanism

• Replacing Fast Track: a path to middle class prosperity, security, and a healthy environment

• There is no acceptable “version” of Fast Track

• New Book: The Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority

A Shadow Legal System: Empowering Foreign Corporations to Bypass our Courts, Challenge Basic Protections in Extrajudicial Tribunals

Among the most dangerous but least known parts of today’s “trade” agreements are extraordinary new rights and privileges that empower foreign corporations to skirt domestic courts and directly challenge any policy or action of a sovereign government before extrajudicial tribunals. Comprised of three private attorneys unaccountable to any electorate, the tribunals are authorized to order unlimited sums of taxpayer compensation for health, environmental, financial and other public interest policies seen as undermining the corporations’ “expected future profits.” There is no outside appeal. Many of these attorneys rotate between acting as tribunal “judges” and as the lawyers launching cases against the government on behalf of the corporations.

This shadowy “investor-state” system has already been included in U.S. “free trade” agreements, forcing taxpayers to pay firms more than $430 million for toxics bans, land-use rules, regulatory permits, and water and timber policies. Just under U.S. pacts, more than $38 billion remains pending in corporate claims against medicine patent policies, pollution cleanup requirements, climate and energy laws, and other public interest polices. Deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) would vastly expand the investor-state threat, newly empowering thousands of foreign corporations to demand compensation for the policies on which we rely. But some countries are now beginning to challenge this outrageous system.

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• See all corporate investor-state cases launched under U.S. ‘free trade’ agreements

• Key elements of damaging U.S. trade agreement investment rules that must not be replicated

• Brewing storm over investor-state clouds Trans-Pacific Partnership talks

• Chevron v. Ecuador: in response to Chevron attempt to evade $9.5 billion domestic ruling for Amazon pollution, a tribunal directs Ecuador’s government to violate its Constitution, casts aside two decades of court rulings, and declares that rights granted to Ecuadorians no longer exist

• Eli Lilly v. Canada: a U.S. pharmaceutical corporation challenges Canada’s legal standard for patents and pushes for greater monopoly patent protections, which increase the cost of medicines for consumers and governments

• Renco v. Peru: a U.S. corporations tries to evade its contractual commitment to clean up its metal smelter contamination in one of the world’s most polluted towns

• Oxy v. Ecuador: a tribunal fabricates a new foreign investor right and uses “egregious” logic to hit Ecuador with a more than $2 billion penalty in the largest-ever investor-state award

• RDC v. Guatemala: a tribunal ignores trade pact text and the opinions of four sovereign States, imports another tribunal’s sweeping interpretation of foreign firms’ rights, and rules against Guatemala

• Loewen v. United States: a tribunal decides that foreign corporations unhappy with domestic court decisions can demand bailout from taxpayers