[TheGuardian] The lies behind this transatlantic trade deal

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Plans to create an EU-US single market will allow corporations to sue governments using secretive panels, bypassing courts and parliaments. […]

All over Europe people are asking why this is happening; why we were not consulted; for whom it is being done. They have good reason to ask. The commission insists that its Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership should include a toxic mechanism called investor-state dispute settlement. Where this has been forced into other trade agreements, it has allowed big corporations to sue governments before secretive arbitration panels composed of corporate lawyers, which bypass domestic courts and override the will of parliaments. […]

Caroline Lucas, one of the few MPs interested in the sovereignty of parliament, has published an early-day motion on the issue. It has so far been signed by seven MPs. For the government, Clarke argues that to ignore the potential economic gains « in favour of blowing up a controversy around one small part of the negotiations, known as investor protection, seems to me positively Scrooge-like ».

Quite right too. Overriding our laws, stripping away our rights, making parliament redundant: these are trivial and irrelevant beside the issue of how much money could be made. Don’t worry your little heads about it.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/02/transatlantic-free-trade-deal-regulation-by-lawyers-eu-us