European Groups Expose 'Terrifying Extent of Corporate Grab' Within TTIP

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/02/15/european-groups-expose-terrifying-extent-corporate-grab-within-ttip

Even with global inequality at historic highs and corporate tax evasion in the public spotlight, a new report out Monday shows how a so-called free trade deal between the U.S. and European Union could further threaten tax justice, hampering governments' ability to ensure that critical public services are well funded or to pursue progressive tax practices.

According to the London-based Global Justice Now and the Netherlands-headquartered Transnational Institute, the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) "would massively increase the ability of corporations to sue member states of the EU over measures such as windfall taxes on exceptional profits, or use of taxation as a policy instrument such as a possible 'sugar tax'."

"Despite the enormous public outcry over companies like Google and Amazon paying ridiculously small amounts of tax in the UK, the government is trying to sign us up to a trade deal that could effectively prevent us from bringing about laws that could address tax injustice," said Global Justice Now executive director Nick Dearden on Monday.

"The ability to enact effective and fair tax systems to finance vital public services is one of the defining features of sovereignty," he added. "The fact that multinational companies would be able to challenge and undermine that under TTIP is testament to the terrifying extent of the corporate grab embedded in this toxic trade deal."

[eridani]

1. Think Corporate Tax Avoidance is Bad? It Could be About to Get Even Worse

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/02/15/think-corporate-tax-avoidance-bad-it-could-be-about-get-even-worse

The research that Global Justice Now has released today shows that foreign investors – usually multinational corporations – have already sued at least 24 countries from India to Romania in tax-related disputes. To do this, they use something know formally as an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), a sort of secret court system only accessible to foreign corporations, which is embedded in hundreds of trade agreements.

The idea of ISDS was to allow corporations to take action if a foreign government expropriated that company’s assets. Only a rapidly growing legal industry has interpreted an "act of expropriation" as virtually anything that "unfairly" damages a company’s profits. Which could be pretty much anything from putting health warnings on cigarette packages to introducing a new piece of environmental protection to… a new tax on their profits.

In 2007, Vodafone took over much of India’s telecoms industry. The company is now one of the largest mobile network operators in the country, with more than 180 million customers. But it gained its stake through a complex $11bn deal which used offshore companies that allowed it to pay no capital gains tax.

Indian tax officials understandably weren’t happy, and insisted that Vodafone retrospectively pay a multi-billion dollar bill. Vodafone responded with an ISDS claim, arguing that the state was breaching a trade treaty signed between India and the Netherlands in 1995. The case is ongoing.

As part of long-running legal proceedings that began in 2005, Mexico has been successfully sued by a consortium of US-based agribusiness giants, including Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland, after introducing a new tax on the sales of soft drinks containing high-fructose corn syrup. Campaigners claim the tax was helping an obesity epidemic. But the tribunals ruled in favour of the corporations, and Mexico was ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages.

[Enthusiast]

3. Huge +1!

[Enthusiast]

2. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations! The TPP is as bad. It must be stopped.

Thank you, eridani.

[tomg2]

4. And the TiSA ( Trade in Services Agreement)

is another one coming down the road. It includes about 50 countries - if one includes all of the EU. the potential impact of the social safety net in all the involved countries could be devastating. In essence the three agreements taken together - TPP, TTIP, and TISA - pretty much establish american-led corporate hegemony of world trade and services and effectively isolate the BRIC nations. the whole thing is an absurd horror show. Wkileaks has released some of the documents on TiSA: https://wikileaks.org/tisa/

[marmar]

5. K/R

[gregcrawford]

6. The tinfoil beanie crowd...

... have been screeching for decades about the dangers of a "World Government." And yet, they are among the TPP's and the TTIP's most ardent supporters. Go figure. The very thing they feared most is actually on the verge of becoming a reality, and these dipshits are CHEERING! The mind boggles.

Corporatism is the most evil and pervasive influence on the planet, and, if they succeed in passing the TPP and/or the TTIP, their malevolence will make ISIS look like a bunch choirboys.

These cynically misnamed "trade deals" are a blatant corporate coup d'etat, and the most ambitious power grab in recent history. It must not be allowed to happen.

[BeanMusical]

7. Kick and R