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At
the end of July, WikiLeaks released a secret letter from the
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP or TPPA) Ministerial Meeting
in December 2013, along with a comprehensive expert analysis of the
document.
Key
findings briefly:
The
letter indicates a wide-ranging privatisation and globalisation
strategy within the Agreement which aims to severely restrict
"state-owned enterprises" (SOEs). Even an SOE that
exists to fulfil a public function neglected by the market or which
is a natural monopoly would nevertheless be forced to act "on
the basis of commercial considerations" and would be
prohibited from discriminating in favour of local businesses in
purchases and sales.
Foreign
companies would be given standing to sue SOEs in domestic courts for
perceived departures from the strictures of the TPP, and countries
could even be sued by other TPP countries, or by private companies
from those countries. Developing countries such as Vietnam,
which employs a large number of SOEs as part of its economic
infrastructure, would be affected most. SOEs continue to fulfil
vital public functions in even the most privatised countries, such as
Canada and Australia.
The
TPP is the world's largest economic trade agreement and will, if it
comes into force, encompass more than 40 per cent of the world's GDP.
Despite its wide-ranging effects on the global population, the TPP is
currently being negotiated in total secrecy by 12 countries.
Few
people, even within the negotiating countries' governments, have
access to the full text of the draft agreement, and the public –
who it will affect most – none at all. Large corporations, however,
are able to see portions of the text, generating a powerful lobby to
effect changes on behalf of these groups and bringing developing
countries reduced force, while the public at large gets no say.
The
TPP is part of the TPP-TISA-TTIP mega-treaty package, which together
proposes to encompass more than two-thirds of global GDP.
WikiLeaks'
editor, Julian Assange, said: "The TPP erects a 'one size
fits all' economic system designed to advantage the largest
transnational corporations. In this leak we see the radical effects
the TPP will have, not only on developing countries, but on states
very close to the centre of the Western system. If we are
to restructure our societies into an ultra-neoliberal legal and
economic bloc that will last for the next 50 years then this should
be said openly and debated."
Source
and full documents:
The
revelation shows that big private corporations attack on states. The
ruthless neoliberalism seeks to destroy the nation-states and the
small-medium businesses, to declare the final victory of
multinational big banks and monopolies.
It
also shows that the indebted countries are used as a pretext for mass
privatizations. The debt is not the problem, it is only the tool
through which neoliberalism is attacking to the workers and people's
rights, privatizing everything for the big capital. This letter shows
clearly that the war on state enterprises and structures was planned
methodically by the lobbyists who influence anyone who holds a key
position in the EU and the US.
The
latest "agreement" between Greece and the creditors aims to
dissolve what is left from labor rights, and privatize key state
enterprises for pennies.
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