If the wordings secret, who in each country is going to sign it off? I doubt Pres. Obama has read every word so is he going on blind faith that someone in the USA has read it fully or is it some junior lackey who's job is to be the fall guy if it goes tits up?
Scary Trans-Pacific Partnership trade treaty signed off
The Trans-Pacific partnership, a 12-nation trade treaty negotiated in secret and thought to contain copyright nasties, is all but done. Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the USA and Vietnam have successfully concluded negotiations on the provisions of the secret …
COMMENTS
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Tuesday 6th October 2015 05:36 GMT Anonymous Coward
In the US, treaties have to be ratified by Congress.
As of yet, the members of Congress don't know what is in the treaty - it's secret.
For those not in the US, there was a major bill that passed Congress, nick named ObamaCare.
The Speaker Of The House told the House: "We have to vote for it to see what is in it"
And so they did.
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Tuesday 6th October 2015 06:05 GMT Voland's right hand
My exact thought
The article missed the fact that the treaty is rumored to establish "corporation can sue a state for lost profits due to changes in tax and environmental legislation" procedure.
So the concept is not entirely new - there are some cases of international corp vs state arbitration. The treaty supposedly streamlines it and makes it nice, easy and one way street for the corporations.
The opposite - states clawing back compensation for tax evasion, environmental disasters, etc from corporations in other countries signatories to the treaty is surprise, surprise - not supported. Same as the similar deal with the Eu.
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Tuesday 6th October 2015 00:13 GMT Mark 85
The articles are starting to come out in the mainstream media and this thing isn't boding well for anyone... Tariffs on everything from dairy products to autos, IP, copyright, and slew of other things including patents on tech and pharmaceuticals. Here in the States it's being predicted at this early stage that it's not going to happen. Some Repubs say it didn't go far enough and the others say it went too far. The Dems at the moment, are strangely quiet.
I'm not holding my breath in this. From what's been released, it looks like people, but not the corporations, world round will be screwed one way or the other.
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Tuesday 6th October 2015 08:08 GMT Christoph
The legislatures MUST vote against this.
This must be voted down regardless of the actual contents.
If this is passed then the various legislatures are voting for themselves to be reduced to rubber stamps passing whatever is put in front of them.
This isn't in any doubt whatever - it is entirely blatant. The treaty has been drafted in total secrecy by only the parties that benefit from it, and presented as "Here it is, you may not change it in any way, just sign it".
Whatever the text of the treaty, the drafting process is entirely illegitimate.
The only possible response is to vote it down on the spot, and make clear that this process is not acceptable and any future attempt will similarly be dismissed out of hand.
Don't debate it, don't try to justify it, just kill it.
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Tuesday 6th October 2015 08:24 GMT DocJames
Learnt helplessness
Copyright extensions, biological drugs costing more (though the rumours are that it's not as bad as feared), investor-state courts (corporation sues govt if they pass legislation that hurts the company - like Australia being attacked in court for its plain packaging cigarettes at present)... *some* trade barriers seem to be coming down, which is probably a good thing but as mentioned above it's hard to know.
Ironically the politicians have been complaining about all the opposition to the TTP, saying it's misinformed. If only there was some way to counter this misinformation, like information.
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Tuesday 6th October 2015 09:09 GMT Anonymous Coward
Copyright trolling field day
For me, the scariest thing (at least in the drafts leaked so far) is the extension of the DMCA's takedown provisions to all signatory nations and to allow any legal person (i.e. a citizen or corporate entity) of a signatory nation to file the takedown notice if they believe the copyright of something from one signatory nation has been infringed in the same or any other signatory nation.
Surely this will lead to copyright trolling on a massive scale, as the copyright owner doesn't even have to complain themselves. They may not actually consider it a violation, or may even turn a blind eye to it, as happens frequently in Japanese doujin culture, but that won't matter. Lawyers can fight the action on your behalf whether you want them to or not.
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Tuesday 6th October 2015 14:13 GMT Eddy Ito
Election pending warning
At least here in the US there is an election coming up next year. As a result we can expect one of three outcomes. Either it will pass swiftly in the hopes that the public will forget about it come the election, it will be rejected nearly as swiftly or it will get shelved and die as it only has 90 days to live. Clearly one of the latter two is preferred with a swift rejection being ideal as we won't have to sweat for a whole quarter but there is solace in delay as it brings the election closer and raises the congresscritters political risk.
Keep in mind that the US isn't calling this a treaty but an agreement, specifically a congressional-executive agreement which requires a simple majority of both houses of Congress. A treaty in the US requires action only by the Senate but it requires a 2/3 super-majority to ratify it and it can often sit indefinitely waiting Senate advice and consent. Treaties are somewhat less politically risky in that only 1/3 of the Senate is up for reelection every two years which currently gives the other 2/3 of the Senate 3 years for memories to fade.
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Tuesday 6th October 2015 19:27 GMT Mark 85
Re: Of All The Things...
Go read the political news websites. The Repubs approving this is certainly NOT a sure thing. I pointed out earlier... some are saying it didn't go far enough and others are saying it went too far. The difference in opinion can probably be traced to whatever lobbyist has them in their pocket be it carmakers, banks, movie studios, music industry, dairy, etc.
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