Being against TPP because of NAFTA is fighting the last battle again. There are no jobs to lose with

[ljm2002]

48. In this country...

...we have courts, and an appeal process.

With the TPP, there is a "court" comprised of 3 corporate lawyers who act as prosecution, defense and judge. They are not affiliated with any government. There is NO appeal process and whatever decision they come to is final. Therefore, the tendency of this process is to force standards down, since we already know how these provisions will be used by corporations to sue countries. We know this because they are already using NAFTA to sue, and on what basis they are suing.

As to your hair splitting argument that there must be a "predicate action", well, duh. Of course. But the basis upon which that action is actionable, includes such things as expected future profits.

I note that you do not address any of the concerns about these so-called trade agreements driving the global race to the bottom, while lining the pockets of the fat cats. Also there are heavy concerns about the process under which TPP has been negotiated, with 600 corporate hacks thrashing out the details while our own representatives and senators are not allowed to see anything of the agreement except under very controlled conditions -- and even then, they can't see all of it. Why do you think that process has been used? To me it reeks of skullduggery.

Anyway, we already know the effects of this sort of trade agreement, since we saw what happened with NAFTA. TPP is more of the same, and from what we have seen of leaked documents, it is even worse than NAFTA.

I hope Congress squashes it.