A company was able to sue a country over a public health measure through an international court. Multinational corporations will be able to sue the government for passing laws, including on the environment and health protections that they claim affect their expected future profit. Experts say it will send millions of jobs overseas and drive down wages and conditions at home. It will have implications beyond matters of trade, intruding into almost every aspect of people’s lives. NARRATOR: The treaty covers nearly half of the world’s economy and is the largest ever negotiated. They have to do with the financial regulation, of food and product safety. They have to do with our freedom on the Internet. And 80 percent of it isn’t even about trade. They say it’s a free trade deal, but in reality it is anything but free. NARRATOR: The TPP is a multitrillion-dollar treaty that is being negotiated behind closed doors by the Obama administration. THOM HARTMANN: The United States has negotiated the TPP almost entirely in secret, with the help of about 600 private corporations. NARRATOR: All 29 chapters of the TPP are secret, but three of them have been WikiLeaked. ELIZABETH WARREN: Wall Street, pharmaceuticals, telecom, big polluters and outsourcers are all salivating at the chance to rig the upcoming trade deals in their favor. THOM HARTMANN: It is a giant giveaway to monster transnational corporations. LORI WALLACH: It is enforceable corporate global governance. ELIZABETH WARREN: Who will benefit from the TPP? MIKE SYNAN: It’s called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and it might not sound important to you, until you hear Democrats railing against their own president and saying your job could be on the line. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: TPP is for American businesses, American businesses, businesses, businesses. NARRATOR: WikiLeaks is raising a $100,000 reward for the missing chapters on America’s most wanted secret: the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The group is seeking to raise $100,000 to offer what they describe as a bounty for the leaking of the unseen chapters of the TPP. Well, this morning, the whistleblowing group WikiLeaks launched a campaign to change that. The negotiations have been secret, and the public has never seen most of the deal’s text. Critics, including a number of Democratic lawmakers, oppose the TPP, saying it will fuel inequality, kill jobs, and undermine health, environmental and financial regulations. AMY GOODMAN: Despite the Senate vote approving a measure to give President Obama fast-track authority to negotiate the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, opposition to the deal continues to mount ahead of this month’s House vote.
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