Trans Pacific Partnership betekent het einde van de soevereiniteit

Tech Dirt - USTR Sued For Failing To Reveal TPP Details In Response To FOIA Request
23 december 2013


William New, the guy who runs the excellent IP Watch website has been trying to find out more about the TPP agreement for quite some time. Working with some students from Yale's Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic, New filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for TPP-related documents. The USTR waited nearly a year to respond (well beyond the 20 working days required by the law), and then told New that they weren't providing the documents, saying that the draft text of the TPP is classified as "national security information."

Yeah. A draft of a trade agreement that will impact us all, but is being negotiated in secret by the USTR and a small group of corporate lobbyists, is "national security" information.

In response, New and the MFIA clinic have now filed a lawsuit against the government concerning the failure to provide this information. I have no idea how the lawsuit will turn out, but it seems likely that the TPP text will be revealed as "finalized" before anything really happens with the lawsuit. Still, hopefully they'll be able to argue that they were seeing the draft texts, rather than the final agreement, and set some sort of precedent.

...

The U.S. Trade Representative – the federal agency responsible for negotiating trade treaties – has said that the details of the Trans Pacific Partnership are classified due to “national security”.

A Congressman who has seen the text of the treaty says:

There is no national security purpose in keeping this text secret … this agreement hands the sovereignty of our country over to corporate interests.

It will increase the cost of borrowing, make prescription drugs more expensive, destroy privacy, harm food safety, and – yes - literally act to destroy the sovereignty of the U.S. and the other nations which sign the bill.

To give an idea of what would happen to American law if TPP passes, just look at Equador …

It’s courts awarded billions against Chevron for trashing huge swaths of rainforest. But then a private arbitration panel simply ignored the country’s court system.

If TPP passes, American courts will be sidelined as well.