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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNY Attorney General: Don't Let TPP Gut State Laws
State laws and regulators are increasingly important as gridlock in Washington makes broad federal action on important issues an increasingly rare event. From environmental protection to civil rights to the minimum wage, the action is at the state level. Ironically, one thing that may get done soon in Washington is a trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has the potential to undermine a wide range of state and local laws.
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To put this in real terms, consider a foreign corporation, located in a country that has signed on to TPP, and which has an investment interest in the Indian Point nuclear power facility in New Yorks Westchester County. Under TPP, that corporate investor could seek damages from the United States, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars or more, for actions by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Westchester Country Board of Legislators or even the local Village Board that lead to a delay in the relicensing or an increase in the operating costs of the facility.
The very threat of having to face such a suit in the uncharted waters of an international tribunal could have a chilling effect on government policymakers and regulators.
Or consider the work my office has done to enforce the state of New Yorks laws against wage theft, predatory lending and consumer fraud. Under TPP, certain foreign targets of enforcement actions, unable to prevail in domestic courts, could take their cases to TPPs dispute resolution tribunals. Unbound by an established body of law or precedent, the tribunals would be able to simply sidestep domestic courts. And decisions by these tribunals cannot be appealed.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/trans-pacific-partnership-state-laws-117127.html#ixzz3XsJVqlVy
cali
(114,904 posts)aspirant
(3,533 posts)to usurping our constitution?
cali
(114,904 posts)aspirant
(3,533 posts)Faryn Balyncd
(5,125 posts)The entire scenario of extrajudicial, essentially sovereign, tribunals exempt from appeal simply seems unbelievable. It seems beyond anything that corporatists could ever have dreamed of.