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Stand against TTIP and ISDS
TheTruth1983
Posts: 13,462 Forum Member
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The time has come for the people of Europe to stand up against TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership in the same way we stood up against ACTA.
TTIP and particularly the ISDS clause (Investor State Dispute Settlement) which effectively gives corporations the right to sue governments if they pass a law that acts in opposition to corporate interests. This is a massive assault on democracy and free markets and must be stopped.
Below is a good site that will answer any questions and where you can register your opposition. Share it far and wide.
http://www.no2isds.eu/
TTIP and particularly the ISDS clause (Investor State Dispute Settlement) which effectively gives corporations the right to sue governments if they pass a law that acts in opposition to corporate interests. This is a massive assault on democracy and free markets and must be stopped.
Below is a good site that will answer any questions and where you can register your opposition. Share it far and wide.
http://www.no2isds.eu/
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Multiculturalism and immigration are not the biggest threat to democracy and freedom that we face at the moment, TTIP is. This is why I am bumping this thread, people need to be aware of it's dangers.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-sovereignty-at-risk-from-euus-trade-deal-uk-in-danger-of-surrendering-judicial-independence-to-multinational-corporations-warn-activists-9057318.html
And the really scary thing? All our mainstream political parties support it.
Free trade is about free access to a market with no tariffs or duties or preference given to domestic businesses just because they are domestic. It is not about making markets homogeneous or to comply with what those seeking to operate in them want them to be.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140625/04305727679/why-taftattip-isnt-worth-it-economically-how-we-can-do-much-better.shtml
The EC's own figures show that TTIP, specifically ISDS, is not needed as there is already significant investment between the US and the EU.
The case for ISDS has been weakened.
The draft TPP deal may grant new patent privileges and restrict net freedom, but it's secret – unless you're a multinational CEO
"Free trade" is a sacred mantra in Washington. If anything is labeled as being "free trade", then everyone in the Washington establishment is required to bow down and support it. Otherwise, they are excommunicated from the list of respectable people and exiled to the land of protectionist Neanderthals.
This is essential background to understanding what is going on with the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), a pact that the United States is negotiating with Australia, Canada, Japan and eight other countries in the Pacific region. The agreement is packaged as a "free trade" agreement. This label will force all of the respectable types in Washington to support it.
In reality, the deal has almost nothing to do with trade: actual trade barriers between these countries are already very low. The TPP is an effort to use the holy grail of free trade to impose conditions and override domestic laws in a way that would be almost impossible if the proposed measures had to go through the normal legislative process. The expectation is that by lining up powerful corporate interests, the governments will be able to ram this new "free trade" pact through legislatures on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.
As with all these multilateral agreements, the intention is to spread its reach through time. That means that anything the original parties to the TPP accept is likely to be imposed later on other countries in the region, and quite likely, on the rest of the world.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/27/pacific-free-trade-deal
Saw this a while ago and meant to post it. Many people seem to think a 'free trade deal' means only agreeing to buy and sell to each other with no tariffs or restrictions. It does appear though that free trade deals are far more complicated, and intrusive, than that. With all the talk about a free trade deal being the best way over the EU, do any of those voicing that opinion know the full ramifications of free trade deals? It doesn't seem quite as simple and straight forward as many proclaim it to be. It certainly adds to the argument that I keep making that the EU is driven by big business, not political ideals. Maybe that's why right wing types like to promote the mantra that the EU is a socialist paradise. It's to avoid blaming the real villains, the big corporates?
One thing all "free trade" agreements have in common is protectionism and TTIP and TPP are no different. They are a huge offence to anyone who believes in competition, innovation and free markets.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140626/09350427687/why-european-commissions-consultation-corporate-sovereignty-is-sham-how-to-respond-to-it-anyway.shtml
I think what it's really about is US imperialism. We're told that America must remain a leader on the world stage otherwise the world will head in a different direction, so to achieve this they compromise all the good things about Western democracy to give more power to multinational corporations. Essentially, the US is attempting to drag the rest of the developed world down to its level in terms of the powerlessness of people and the power of corporate conglomerates. And this is why it's now or never.
At what point does the West concede some power on the world stage when freedom and democracy is being threatened by a bunch of psychopaths for whom enough will never be enough?
30 reasons why Greens oppose TTIP
I swear there's something actually wrong with most of the population.
Indeed. Did this story even get mentioned during the Clegg/Farage debates?
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/02/ttip-us-eu-trade-deal_n_5050117.html
People don't seem to want to think about the real problems and instead focus on the easy scapegoat of immigration.
Why is there no recent discussion about this subject on this forum or am i missing something? Are we all just going to sit and pretend this isn't going to happen?
It seems that is what collectively the country has decided to do.
Funny thing is when big American corporations decide to sue the NHS, for example and extract vast amounts of tax-payers cash then people will be whinging and foaming from the gob, but it'll be far too late.
Again, it's funny how much f*king fuss the European Union causes when TTIP actually gives us an arguably more complicated union with North America, with far greater and over-reaching liabilities.
I wonder why?
Yes it's amazing considering the constant "EU is not democratic" rants we get yet no one seems to care that we are selling out our sovereign rights to big business
http://www.ttip2014.eu/blog-detail/blog/diversion%20of%20trade.html
Hint: trade diversion rather than trade creation and protectionism.
Even UKIP aren't against it, they just want NHS to be exempt.