TPP

What is the TPP?

It's the TransPacific Partnership.

A proposed trade agreement between 12 nations.

United States, 
Japan, 

Australia, 
Peru, 
Malaysia, 
Vietnam, 
New Zealand, 
Chile, 
Singapore, 
Canada, 
Mexico, and 
Brunei Darussalam

As of 5-22-2015, the U.S. Senate has given Barak Obama authority to push this evil agreement through http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-wins-trade-victory-in-the-senate/2015/05/22/1cb6958e-00c7-11e5-8b6c-0dcce21e223d_story.html

TPP's implications for intellectual property are addressed at this site:  https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp

> 250 U.S. tech companies tell congress how TPP will hurt them: http://www.fastcoexist.com/3046505/more-than-250-tech-companies-release-letter-to-congress-opposing-trans-pacific-partnership?utm_source=facebook

Creates the "ISDS" (Investor-State Dispute Settlement) - a private tribunal in which TPP member nations may sue one another for claims that a law or action harms their present or future profits.  Sovereign courts will have no jurisdiction over such claims.  https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/leaked-tpp-investment-chapter-reveals-serious-threat-user-safeguards

Wikipedia overview:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership

• we know a lot about the IP and Environmental Chapters of the TPP thanks to Wikileaks making the text available.  https://wikileaks.org/tpp-enviro/pressrelease.html
• There have been many versions of this agreement since its 2005 creation - so be careful when someone claims TPP says 'this' or 'that' --- you have to ask, "In which draft?"
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Bernie Sanders tells it like it is:

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/the-trans-pacific-trade-tpp-agreement-must-be-defeated?inline=file

He points out:  "it has no sunset date and could only be altered by a consensus of all of the countries that agreed to it.  Other countries, like China, could be allowed to join in the future.  For example, Canada and Mexico joined TPP negotiations in 2012 and Japan joined last year."