There is yet another outrage against citizens of nations.  This time the plan is to allow corporations to sue nation-states when they do not like their labor and environmental laws.  This nefarious agenda is currently being negotiated between the United States and the EU.  The trade agreements Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, and TAFTA, the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement is where these new corporate powers would be activated. This is a modified version of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment which caused uproar and protests in the mid 90's.  Like most things multinational corporations want, it's back again.

Imagine what would happen if foreign companies could sue governments directly for cash compensation over earnings lost because of strict labour or environmental legislation.

Since July the European Union and the United States have been negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) or Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA), a modified version of the MAI under which existing legislation on both sides of the Atlantic will have to conform to the free trade norms established by and for large US and EU corporations, with failure to do so punishable by trade sanctions or the payment of millions of dollars in compensation to corporations.

Over and over again we see sovereign nations hand over their sovereignty, rights and laws to multinational corporations through trade treaties.  Clearly corporations do not have to declare war on nations, they simply supersede the rights of nations by negotiating more bad trade deals.

Reports are opposition is growing, yet it takes a massive,concentrated effort to make a dent in the multinational corporation agenda.

A scenario similar to the anti-MAI grassroots movement is unfolding today, this time with the TPP as its target. According to the latest poll, 61 percent of the public in key countries, including the U.S., oppose the TPP. Opposition has grown, thanks to the work of many groups, including the Organic Consumers Association, who have publicly opposed the deal, and launched massive public education campaigns to expose the unprecedented secrecy surrounding the deal, and the potential for the TPP to subvert democracy for the benefit of corporate profits.

Additionally it is hard to oppose something when the general public is kept in the dark and these negotiations are secret, behind closed doors, backroom deals.