This EU-US trade deal (TTIP) is not really about trade or a deal. It is creating a new piece of international law, the conditions of which will be enforced by a tribunal of three lawyers from private international law firms. They will meet in secret, there are no observers, the details of their judgements will not be released and there is no appeal system. Their judgement is final. Furthermore, the lawyers will financially benefit, the more actions to sue that are brought by corporations.
In the case of the NHS, every private health provider would be able to sue the UK government for their lost profits if a future democratically-elected government attempted to take the NHS back into public ownership. In addition, the ISDS is lop-sided. Corporations can take a government straight to arbitration whereas government has to exhaust every level of their domestic courts to bring an action against a corporation.
So that’s what the EU wants us to sign up to .. a charter for corporate kleptocracy.
The closing date for submitting your objection to the TTIP secret corporate courts is the 6th July… but it’s so easy to do. (It may take you as long as 3 minutes.) Simply follow the links below provided by the SumOfUs – a worldwide movement of people, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.
The EU is asking for our views on TTIP secret corporate courts. But they’re making it super hard for citizens to share their views
We built a snazzy digital tool that will help us tell the EU exactly what we think about TTIP secret corporate courts. Let’s make sure the EU can’t ignore our views and are forced to back down on these secret courts.
In the next couple of weeks, we’ve got a huge opportunity to stop one of the worst parts of the risky trade deal between Europe and US. The EU have said they’ll get opinions from anyone in Europe on whether or not the deal should include investor state dispute settlement — rules that will allow corporations to sue our elected governments in secret courts. The deadline for submissions is really soon, so we’ve not got long to make sure the EU knows what we think about secret corporate courts.
We’ve built a tool that makes it really easy to let the EU know our views. Just click on the link below and follow the instructions. It won’t take more than 3 minutes to complete and this could be our chance to deal a fatal blow to one of the key planks of the dangerous EU-USA trade deal. Let the EU know what you think about the secret corporate courts proposed in TTIP.
The courts are proposed under something called “Investor-State Arbitration Settlement” or ISDS. This would set up a system of tribunals where corporations could take our governments to court if they didn’t like a particular law that they thought harmed their business. We’ve seen how this system works already around the world — it’s not good. Ecuador is being sued by Chevron because the country is requiring it to clean up a huge toxic oil spill in the heart of the Ecuadorian rainforest. Australia is being sued by Phillip Morris because it wants to take action on glamourous cigarette packaging. Even Germany is being sued by Swedish energy giant because it wants to phase out nuclear power.
The EU’s consultation is a great first step – and it shows that pressure to drop the deal from all over the EU is starting to work. Now the EU have said they’ll listen, we need to make sure they hear from everyone of us who doesn’t want the deal to include these worrying new rules.
We know our tool will help more people get their views across to the EU. There’s an opportunity for people to fill in every question if they want, but the form also makes it easy to answer just one or two questions. So if you’ve got a busy job, or you have to share a computer at home, or you’ve got little ones to look after, you’ll still be able to have your say. Can you take 3 minutes to tell the EU to stop the secret corporate courts in TTIP?
Thanks for all you do,
Martin, Hannah, Jon and the rest of us.
SumOfUs is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy. Please help keep SumOfUs strong by chipping in $3.
Highly recommended for a historical perspective of why we are where we are:
5 thoughts on “Only 3 days left to stop hidden rules within the EU-US trade deal allowing corporates to sue the state”
Another great post, Sue!
Bilaterals.org is also championing this urgent and very important cause and has a quick and simple platform on which to voice your protest. I would urge everyone to do so – See more at: “NO TO ISDS: NOT NOW, NOT HERE AND NOT FOR US” – http://bilaterals.org/?no-to-isds – Scroll down to the ‘take action’ button. Also find them on twitter @bilaterals_org for updates 🙂
It is through actions like this by our elected governments, that makes me realise what a sham western democracy has become, though I suspect has always been!
Think Left 
Another great post, Sue!
Bilaterals.org is also championing this urgent and very important cause and has a quick and simple platform on which to voice your protest. I would urge everyone to do so – See more at: “NO TO ISDS: NOT NOW, NOT HERE AND NOT FOR US” – http://bilaterals.org/?no-to-isds – Scroll down to the ‘take action’ button. Also find them on twitter @bilaterals_org for updates 🙂
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This is an appalling, undemocratic and downright corrupt. These hidden rules must be exposed and stopped.
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It is through actions like this by our elected governments, that makes me realise what a sham western democracy has become, though I suspect has always been!
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