Business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch has signed the UK up to a major post Brexit deal which some critics claim will give major corporations more power over government.
Well, the UK has finally arrived at the point where a British government can finally sign a trade deal without the interference of the European Union, in the interests of the British people. Accept that critics are claiming that this deal will hand corporations more power over the government. Hold on! I thought Brexit was about Britain taking control? Or was it?
The UK has been signed up to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The countries involved in this bloc are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, and now the UK.
Sky news tells us that British businesses will be able to sell their products to a market of half a billion people. ‘A significant milestone for UK trade’: Britain signs deal to join £12trn Indo-Pacific trading block What an opportunity for British businesses and upcoming British entrepreneurs you may say. Who can argue with a £12 trillion trade bloc? However, once again the masses have not read the small print.
Corporate Power Over National Sovereignty
Critics such as Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, who is the President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), spoke out for his country Malaysia, who he said would be worse off under this trade deal because local courts will have no power over trade disputes, which will be settled by an international arbitration panel, who will have the final decision. Malaysia: Postpone the Enforcement of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)
Wait there…..I thought Brexit was about taking back control and British sovereignty? It appears not.
Dr. Muzaffar also said that the trade deal will adversely affect Malaysian farmers who will be forced to buy seeds from big, mainly US agribusiness.
Michael Welch, David Orchard, and Gus Van Harten, argues that Canada will become a US corporate colony under this deal.
Orchard said:
“Our government has been saying, well, we want a more progressive NAFTA. We want to have labour rights and gender rights and all this. You can’t have a more progressive NAFTA because it’s all about allowing the U.S. corporations to come in and buy up our country. And that’s what we’re seeing happen.”
“Canada leads the world, at least among Western developed countries, in our willingness to sacrifice our sovereignty in favour of these foreign investor protections…Once you add to that the CETA with Europe and now this new TPP, we will have virtually all foreign-owned parts of our economy governed by this, in my view, really, really offensive regime.” Free Trade Fantasies: Canada Must Reject Both NAFTA and TPP
Dr. Vandana Shiva is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, eco feminist, and anti-globalisation author. She has written many articles on the devastating impact of globalisation, and global agribusiness on farmers in India, and across the world.
In a powerful example of corporate power over sovereign governments she said:
“India passed the National Food Security Act 2013 (also ‘Right to Food Act’) is an Act of the Parliament which aims to provide subsidised food grains to approximately two thirds of India’s 1.2 billion people.
The US Government under the Presidentship of Obama immediately objected and brought the issue to WTO using the distorted subsidy calculus and subsidy tricks. The US government argued that the public procurement of food from the small farmers of India for the public distribution system under the Constitutional obligation of the state to guarantee the Right to life of all its citizens violated the rules of WTO. A subsidy to buy from US agribusiness programme was allowed. But not to procure from our farmers. Agribusiness led by Cargill had written the rules of WTO which allows subsidies to US agribusiness to increase...”
Fool Me Once, Shame On You; Fool Me Twice, Shame On Me
This ties in with what Dr. Muzaffar and other critics of the CPTPP has mentioned. British farmers and businesses will be at the mercy of the global corporations, and the belief that was sold to British people, that they would take back control is a myth.
According to Oxfam, as food prices rise, and energy prices crippled the income of many British families, and interest rates forced many British homeowners to default on their mortgage, or even lose their homes; food and energy companies have made £453 billion from the suffering of British people. FOOD AND ENERGY BILLIONAIRES POCKET $453BN WINDFALL, AS COST OF LIVING CRISIS SET TO PUSH HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS INTO EXTREME POVERTY
We are all not in this together! The mainstream media would rather you be focused on illegal immigrants, and hotels who are clearly profiting from housing immigrants over the local population. The politicians want you focused on illegal immigrants, and the Rwanda deal, while piece by piece, they sell British resources and land off to corporations.
Slowly, but surely, the world is moving towards a global Corporatocracy. Brexit was a deception. As are so called democratic elections, or so called sovereignty. If citizens of the world, especially the western world, fail to open their eyes and see the deception in front of them, then prepare yourselves for more poverty, and more hunger, because you haven’t seen nothing yet!
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