9 responses to “Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement in Review Part I: The Investment Chapter”

1. 

   Violet C Beckles

   November 11, 2015 at 7:32 am

   
   

   The other side of Slavery, Cheaper labor as they look to starve out Atlantic Slave trade routes ,As the IMF look to put 100 million on the bread line, More will die under this agreement,Well never enough for All on this Earth as the rich gets Richer, The poor willnot get poorer but just die.

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2. 

   Well Well & Consequences

   November 11, 2015 at 7:37 am

   
   

   This, has the potential to turn into a mess of gigantic proportions for the Caribbean. The leaders will have to work harder than they can imagine.

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3. 

   David

   November 11, 2015 at 7:38 am

   
   

   Extracted from the article:

   Corporate Social Responsibility

   The provision on CSR in Article 9.16 is rather weak; it is drafted in best endeavour language and is not enforceable. It simply reaffirms the importance of each Party to encourage enterprises operating in its territory or subject to its jurisdiction to voluntarily incorporate internationally recognised CSR principles into their internal policies. A stronger CSR provision would have been ideal here, particularly a requirement that investors comply with all applicable laws in the host State, comply with international labour standards and adopt environmentally sustainable practices.

   When one thinks that a big problem in the global market is the Corporate greed it is surprising there is not greater oversight. Then again we are not!

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4. 

   caribbeantradelaw

   November 11, 2015 at 7:48 am

   
   

   Thanks David! My take as reiterated in the article is that a lot of the outrage about the TPP’s investment provisions are overblown as the provisions as generally no more generous to investors than most investment treaties and in some cases there are attempts to close some of the loopholes and carving out rights for states to regulate in areas of the environment and health. Could it have gone further re linking in development? Certainly. But my central premise is that it doesn’t set back the clock on investment for development neither does it advance it by that much. I look forward to the debate this generates!

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5. 

   David

   November 11, 2015 at 7:53 am

   
   

   Alicia, BU’s objective is to give traditional media a poke to pull this issue into the national discourse, talk shows, columns, people like Munroe-Knight need to use their columns to inform/shape views etc. Surely the the established media has a responsibility to educate the population. Like you BU looks forward to a richer debate on the issue.

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6. 

   David

   November 11, 2015 at 8:09 am

   
   

   We will play our part to spotlight the issue by highlighting your contributions to TPP. We publish to FB, Twitter and Linkedin as well. It is refreshing to read your views on these complex and murky issues devoid of the political claptrap. A beef we have is that there is a dearth of financial reporting in Barbados with the exception of Hoyos.

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7. 

   Caribbean Trade Law

   November 11, 2015 at 8:18 am

   
   

   @David Agreed! I completely agree there needs to be more analysis on many of these issues devoid of any political or special interest bias. I applaud your work in raising awareness about many of the goings-on in Bim and fighting for transparency and accountability. I have been reading your Cahill posts with great interest. Thanks again for sharing my articles. I look forward to working together to share information highlighted by each other on our respective pages!

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8. 

   David

   November 11, 2015 at 8:43 pm

   
   

    

   TPP Investment Chapter: Turning Back the Clock on Promoting Investment for Development or Advancing it?

   by caribbeantradelaw

   Alicia Nicholls Outside of the Intellectual Property Chapter, no other chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement has been subject to as much scrutiny or criticism as  its Investment Chapter. Framers of investment agreements have a delicate balancing act to make; balancing investor rights and protection on the one hand, with the host state’s right to regulate […]

   Read more of this post

    

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9. 

   Green Monkey

   November 13, 2015 at 10:11 pm

   
   

   Trudeau’s boldness test: The TPP

   By Murray Dobbin

   First off, let’s be clear that these “trade” agreements are only nominally about trade — they are actually, as economist Jeffrey Sachs says “investment protection agreements.” And for every Canadian government starting with Brian Mulroney’s the almost exclusive economic policy for this country has been a focus on attracting international investment. Finance Minister (and later Prime Minister) Paul Martin made this explicit — and set out to attract foreign investors by lowering the cost of doing business with labour flexibility programs, slashed corporate taxes and a 40 per cent reduction in federal social spending. Stephen Harper never saw a trade/investment deal he didn’t like or wouldn’t sign no matter how bad the terms were for Canada.

   The Europeans have finally figured out that these agreements have little to with trade and have a lot to do with empowering global capital. Two of the most important aspects of these deals which explicitly undermine democracy are their investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions which many Canadians are already familiar with, and the privileged role that large corporations are given in the actual legislative process once these agreements are signed. ISDS provisions allow corporations to sue governments directly for any new laws or regulations which reduce their future profits.

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   A recent United Nations report, “Promotion of a democratic and equitable international order,” similarly lambasts these agreements for actually inviting foreign corporations to intervene to sabotage laws and regulations, citing numerous Canadian examples and stating: “Environmental regulation has also been under attack in Canada, as a former government official reported: ‘I’ve seen the letters from the New York and [Washington] DC law firms coming up to the Canadian government on virtually every new environmental regulation…Virtually all of the new initiatives were targeted and most of them never saw the light of day.’”

   http://rabble.ca/columnists/2015/11/trudeaus-boldness-test-tpp

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