Reprinted from Paul Craig Roberts Website
As I have emphasized since these "partnerships" were first announced, their purpose is to give corporations immunity from the laws in the countries in which they do business. The principle mechanism of this immunity is the granting of the right to corporations to sue governments and agencies of governments that have laws or regulations that impinge on corporate profits. For example, France's prohibitions of GMO foods are, under the "partnerships," "restraints on trade that impinge on corporate profits.
The "partnerships" set up "tribunals" staffed by corporations that are outside the court systems of the sovereign governments. It is in these corporate tribunals that the lawsuits take place. In other words the corporations are judge, jury, and prosecutor. They can't lose. The "partnerships" set up secret unaccountable governments that are higher and have power over the elected governments.
You can ask yourself how much money the representatives of the countries who "fast-tracked" this system were paid by the corporations and how much the bribes will be to get the agreements approved by the legislators. As you witness American, British, German and other government officials agitate in behalf of corporate rule, you will know that they have been well paid.
Peter Liley, Minister of Trade and Industry in Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government and currently a Conservative member of the British Parliament, took the trouble of looking at the Trans-Atlantic partnership and is warning against it. As a politician he cannot speak as forcefully as he might like, but he gives you the picture. Here is Eric Zuesse's report.
No government representative who has the slightest bit of integrity and patriotism would have approved these agreements, and no legislative body that is not competely corrupt would hand its power and function over to global corporations.
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