
Oh, Canada: Surprise loser in US-EU trade deal - walterbell
http://www.politico.eu/article/canada-may-be-loser-in-us-eu-trade-deal/
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rurban
So they are fearing that American cooperations can sue EU governments for
unfair trade barriers, which then should be settled out of the ordinary.

I'm having two issues with that:

1\. The US government is basically in the hands of those cooperations, so why
not led the US government sue the EU government over those barriers? Go the
legal way. Those barriers are typically based on consumer protection laws, so
these are in danger. (privacy, health, anti-trust, illegal practices,
warranty, ...)

2\. Out of court settlements is too american and too illegal to me. We are not
in a colonial world without international law anymore, even if the Americans
still think so.

~~~
digitalzombie
> Out of court settlements is too american and too illegal to me.

Court case can drag on forever. I think having more option is good unless
there's a better way of doing this.

~~~
atlantic
So we should have an alternative to the legal system?

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Svip
I thought arbitration was an alternative to the court system. Though, I
suppose, it is technically part of the legal system.

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crdoconnor
>When Brussels and Ottawa started negotiating more than five years ago, most
politicians did not know what ISDS meant, and hardly anyone but a few legal
specialists paid attention to this section of the agreement. > >That changed
when Brussels started negotiating with the US in July 2013. A possible free-
trade agreement between regions that exchange about €826 billion in goods and
services a year, turned ISDS into a hotly debated issue.

Or maybe it was the leak of the previously-kept-top-secret TPP chapter in 2013
with a proposed ISDS mechanism that is an enormous political giveaway to
corporations:

[https://wikileaks.org/tpp-investment/WikiLeaks-TPP-
Investmen...](https://wikileaks.org/tpp-investment/WikiLeaks-TPP-Investment-
Chapter.pdf)

The TPP and TTIP have almost nothing to do with free trade. It's all about
giving advantages to multinationals.

~~~
akhatri_aus
One could argue otherwise.

The Eurozone is reminiscent of the 'Sterling Area'. The basic principle of
trade local first, sterling area second and everyone else last. This is
strikingly similar to the Eurozone today.

The EU basically puts the US down last as a large trade partner. China may be
a big trader but EU/US trade is something beyond words.

TPP is something that seeks to wear down this 'last preference' down to get a
better deal than the rest of the world.

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mahouse
Semi off-topic; what is the TTIP and why must it be stopped: [https://stop-
ttip.org/what-is-the-problem-ttip-ceta/](https://stop-ttip.org/what-is-the-
problem-ttip-ceta/)

~~~
Svip
Appears the European Parliament agrees on the ISDS aspect. That's... at least
something.

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kleiba
Oh? And I thought the losers were the ordinary citizens...

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funkyy
I always wondered why Canada will not get in to the proper trade union with
Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. In such union none of the countries would
lead, as both Australia and Canada are of similar economies, and New Zealand
and Ireland also are comparable.

Ties with UK would be loosen up to get more independent and all countries in
union would bring something amazing - location. Canada would be stop over for
US market, Ireland for EU and Australia/New Zealand for Asian.

~~~
nvk
That would be the major countries from the Commonwealth of Nations (ex British
Empire), which we already do for sports.

I think the bigger selling points are the shared similarities in Legal
systems, Privacy laws, etc...

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TazeTSchnitzel
Surprise loser? I'd say surprise winner: now their citizens won't have large
EU companies suing their government when it tries to, well, govern.

