[ Daily News| September 08, 2016 | Inside US Trade] Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) this week said commitments from Trans-Pacific Partnership countries on his demand for 12 years of market exclusivity for biologic drugs would not have to be framed in a contract or a side agreement – but rather as a “methodology”…
by Michael Stumo In a significant development, over 200 law and economics professors across the United States oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty and the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) because they grant new power to foreign corporations to sue the United States outside the regular court system. Their letter is significant not only…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new Public Citizen interactive map shows how enactment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would dramatically expand U.S. exposure to multinational corporate demands for taxpayer compensation using the controversial “investor state dispute settlement” (ISDS) system. [Matthew Groch| September 08, 2016 | Public Citzen] Under existing treaties, relatively few foreign investors are empowered to use…
[ Daily News| August 7, 2016 | Inside US Trade] Updated on Sept. 9 at 6 pm: Heads of trade associations from Washington D.C. offices and executives from major companies on Sept. 8 will meet with Obama administration officials at the White House, where sources say the administration will urge attendees to step up lobbying efforts…
[ David Dayen| August 30, 2016 | Alternet] A secretive super-court system called ISDS is threatening to blow up President Barack Obama’s highest foreign policy priority. Investor-state dispute settlement — an integral part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal — allows companies to sue entire countries for costing them money when laws or regulations change.…
[ September 06, 2016 | Democracy Now] At the G20 summit, President Obama also tried to assure Asian nations that the United States would, in fact, ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite mounting opposition. President Barack Obama: “On the merits, it is smart for America to do it. And I have yet to hear a persuasive…
[ Adam Behsudi| September 07, 2016 | Politico] The list of groups coming out against the TPP as it currently stands continues to get longer, with two new organizations — Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America — writing letters to Congress on Tuesday urging lawmakers to state their opposition to the deal. Consumers Union is…
[ Dean Baker| August 29, 2016 | TruthOut] The latest line from proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) implies that President Obama threatened long-standing national security relationships in his negotiating of the TPP. These proponents are not pushing the economic merits of the TPP, but rather arguing that its rejection by Congress would jeopardize longstanding…
[ Robert Scott| September 02, 2016 | EPI] Today’s Jobs Report from the BLS showed that the U.S. manufacturing sector lost 14,000 jobs in August and has now lost 57,000 jobs since January of this year. This job loss is, in part, a consequence of the sharp rise of the dollar in 2014 and 2015, which has…
Very few people are aware of the system known as the ISDS, the existence of which threatens the very principle of national sovereignty – and even Democracy itself. The acronym stand for Investor-State Dispute Settlement, and it is part of every bad free trade deal passed since the 1990s. It is at the heart of the…