Vae Victis!

A visiting Republican Senator, When guest on Q+A, said and I quote, "at some point, complexity becomes fraud"?

And given he was essentially referring to the opaque nature of complexity, germane for all the wrong reasons to the TTP!?
Rhrosty.

Jonathon, only 5 of the 29 chapters of the TPP actually deal with trade. I agree that the terms of the draft should be subject to rigorous cost benefit analysis, but that is not going to happen under the terms of secrecy currently prevailing. Quite how one reconciles such secrecy with concepts of democratic accountability has never been made clear.

The TPP is in fact largely about protecting the profits of US corporations. This is blindingly obvious from the leaked chapters on for example, copyright and pharmaceuticals.

The most dangerous part of the TPP however, is the dispute resolution procedures. These provide for a company, whose profits might be affected, to sue a government for damages and compensation. The experience to date of these procedures show that the awards are in the billions of dollars. Australia is currently being sued by the tobacco companies over plain packaging legislation, using a dispute resolution clause in the Hong Kong FTA. The dispute will be decided by corporate lawyers, not bound by precedent and whose findings are unappealable. In short they are a major attack on national sovereignty.

I have discussed this in an article in New Eastern Outlook in June. It was republished in the (Australian) National Review in their July issue. It is an issue that Australian journalists seem not to have fully appreciated.

James, I agree that the ISDS provision of the TPP is worth scrutiny. I wrote about this aspect in earlier piece.

While many in the media have commented sparingly on the TPP (and I agree with you that expanding trade is only PART of the TPP story), when they do often the ISDS is front and centre. But why isn't it so when looking at the China Australia FTA or the Korean Australia FTA? They too have ISDS provisions.

TPP; Legitimizing & Globalizing Money Laundering (HSBC), Fraud (Enron), et al.

…However, where the real money is to be made in the secret
Treaties/’Arrangements’ is not in the ‘three card Monte’ (ie. Zero net effect) trade area of the treaties, but, in the moves in finance. Perhaps the most significant move here is from a system that is barely accountable in open courts, such as:
1) the money laundering of HSBC, et al, on behalf of drug & terrorist groups,
2) Enron’s unregulated (fraud, insider trading**, etc.) manipulation of electrical power-services,
3) the unregulated & fraud induced (Chase bank; ‘fine before no crime, nor, time’, et al) melt-down of Wall St. in the 2008 (the ‘tactical probe’ before the ‘invasion’ of the Global Treaties/’Arrangements’)
&
4) et al,
to a system of secret tribunal ‘arrangements’. In other words, the illegal practices that were barely detectable due to the deliberate underfunding of the regulators
&
the political interference of the investigations by the Dept. of Justice (U.S.),
will enable the practices of HSBC, Enron, Chase, et al, to not only live on but, expand exponentially & internationally…

FULL Article, see; davidehsmith.wordpress.com
“TPP, TTIP, CETA & other Global Treaties/”Arrangements’; ‘The Three Card Monte’ “.

Also see;
Secrecy, see; ‘TPP; Insider Trading…’
and
'The Submission' to The SUPREME COURT of CANADA:
"The SHAREHOLDERS & Corporations of AMERICA, Australia, Canada, the EU, the Trans Pacific nations et al
v
the harmless Canadian NON shareholders, both; Native & non Native, et al"
including
'The MERKEL (Chancellor of Germany) Letter; To Sue, or, Be Sued?'
(see; davidehsmith.wordpress.com)

Please consider sharing the enclosed information & questions with 10 friends who will share it with 10 others...

Absolutely, positively, right on the money James!
Cheers, Rhrosty.