Shocking Reversal: Sr Tory UK MP has broken ranks To Oppose TIPP -Issues WARNING

[snagglepuss]

Britain’s former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1990-92, under Margaret Thatcher and John Major), and current Conservative MP (Member of Parliament), Peter Liley, broke ranks when he outlined his opposition to TIPP (a deal currently being negotiated between the USA and EU) which he points out TAKES AWAY THE RIGHTS OF GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT ITS OWN CITIZENS.


This from a Tory who negotiated Trade Deals under Thatcher. Note how he say he initially supported it because he ASSUMED it was simply a Free Trade but has since realized it is much more than that.


snip

«I believe in free trade. Always have, always will. As the only serving MP to have negotiated a successful free trade deal (the Uruguay Round – as Trade and Industry Secretary during the 1990s), I automatically supported the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal currently being negotiated between the USA and EU, assuming it was a free trade agreement.

The more closely I look at it, the more parts of it worry me. Conservatives who believe in free trade should be very wary about endorsing TTIP.


snip


TTIP is not primarily about removing tariffs and quotas.


snip


It is mainly about harmonising product specifications and creating a special regime for investment. There is no objection to those things in principle. Insofar as product harmonisation means removing rules introduced as hidden protection of a domestic producer, that is fine. But we should not sign away Parliament’s right to protect our citizens from harmful additives, and so forth».




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Commentary from link regarding Liley's remarks:

The very core of both Obama’s ‘trade’ deal with Europe, TTIP, and his ‘trade’ deal with Asia, TPP, is precisely that: to sign away legislators’ power to protect the electorate from harmful additives, toxic water and foods and air, unsafe cars, and to preserve environment for themselves and future generations – and more (Lilley is especially concerned because it would abolish Britain’s vaunted public health service. Imagine: a British Conservative is determined to protect that enormously successful socialist program in his country! Flabbergasting, but true.).


The very core of it is to transfer national sovereignty to a worldwide dictatorship of international corporations (three-person corporate-accountable panels of ‘arbitrators’, whose rulings are non-appealable and aren’t required to adhere to any nation’s laws – it’s shocking, but true).

And, for any conservative – whether in Britain or any other country – to oppose that is a very big deal, especially when it’s a former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

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Back to Liley's blog post:


My three main concerns relate to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement System (ISDS). This creates a system of tribunals – special courts – in which large foreign companies can sue governments (but not vice-versa) for pursuing policies which harm their investments.

US companies could sue the UK government should it want to take back into the public sector privately provided services in the NHS, education, and so forth – or open fewer services to private provision. The EU and UK government have denied that this is possible. But a cogent Counsel’s Opinion argues that because these tribunals can award unlimited fines they could exert «a chilling effect» on government decision making. The Left have been particularly irate about this but Conservatives too should be worried.


snip


These tribunals give foreign multinationals their own privileged legal system, too costly for smaller foreign companies (since the average case costs $8 million), and from which UK companies are excluded. Moreover, the ‘judges’ are commercial lawyers who, when not serving on a Tribunal, work for, and are therefore sympathetic to, big companies. Cases are heard largely in secret...



Much more at

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/04/09/british-conservative-breaks-ranks-opposes-ttip.html

[TubbersUK]

1. If Lilley's speaking out, it must be even worse than I thought (: n/t