November 29, 2012

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) Free Trade negotiations resume in Auckland Sunday, December 2, 2012

European report slams investor rights to sue governments

“A hot-button issue to be discussed at the Trans-Pacific free trade talks next week is the US proposal for foreign investor rights to sue governments for damages if a law or policy harms their investments,” said Dr Patricia Ranald, Convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network.

“The Australian government opposes this, because it is currently being sued by the Philip Morris tobacco company for its plain packaging legislation, under the provisions of an obscure 1993 Hong Kong investment agreement, even after tobacco companies lost their challenge to the legislation in the Australian High Court.”

Trans-Pacific free trade negotiations between Australia, the US, New Zealand, Peru, Chile, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mexico and Canada resume in Auckland, NZ, from December 2 to 9, 2012.

“A wide range of civil society organisations will be holding public events and demonstrations, and presenting their views to negotiators,” said Dr Ranald.

“A report by the Amsterdam Transnational Institute called Profiting from Injustice released this week exposes the growth of the international ‘arbitration industry’ for investor rights to sue over health and environmental legislation. It has surged from 38 known cases in 1996 to 459 known cases in 2011. In 2010, corporations were claiming at least $100 million from governments in 151 cases,” explained Dr Ranald.

The report reveals how the arbitration industry is dominated by a few international legal firms which supply both arbitrators and advocates, and has none of the safeguards of national legal processes. The proceedings are not public, lawyers can be advocates one week and arbitrators the next, there is no system of precedents and no appeals. Transnational companies support the system precisely because it gives them far more rights than national systems.

See http://www.tni.org/ProfitingFromInjustice.pdf

Dr Ranald will make a presentation to negotiators at the Stakeholders Forum on Friday, December 7. The presentation will analyse the reasons behind the Australian High Court decision, which were published in October, and show how international arbitration threatens national sovereignty by ignoring national judicial decisions. She will urge all governments to oppose investor rights to sue in the negotiations.

Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network
www.aftinet.org.au

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>