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Peril in the Pacific - No to the TPP

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Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:04.069
this is a story about peril in the
00:00:07.070 00:00:07.080 Pacific it's the story about a new u.s.
00:00:10.940 00:00:10.950 sponsored trade agreement called the
00:00:13.160 00:00:13.170 trans-pacific partnership
00:00:18.040 00:00:18.050 [Music]
00:00:25.689 00:00:25.699 eleven countries are now engaged in TPP
00:00:28.640 00:00:28.650 negotiations the United States Canada
00:00:32.119 00:00:32.129 Mexico Peru Chile Australia New Zealand
00:00:37.030 00:00:37.040 Singapore Malaysia Brunei and Vietnam
00:00:41.170 00:00:41.180 Japan is also considering joining the
00:00:43.790 00:00:43.800 talks and other Pacific Rim countries
00:00:46.040 00:00:46.050 may participate in the future the u.s.
00:00:52.460 00:00:52.470 model for the trans-pacific trade deal
00:00:54.170 00:00:54.180 needs to be completely remade top to
00:00:56.750 00:00:56.760 bottom Friends of the Earth is calling
00:00:59.180 00:00:59.190 for a fair deal for people in the planet
00:01:01.310 00:01:01.320 or no deal at all an obsessive secrecy
00:01:05.690 00:01:05.700 surrounds the negotiations the public
00:01:08.330 00:01:08.340 the press and even members of the US
00:01:11.389 00:01:11.399 Congress are denied access to the
00:01:14.240 00:01:14.250 negotiating text what are they hiding
00:01:18.790 00:01:18.800 first that the TPP is being written
00:01:21.980 00:01:21.990 under the supervision of multinational
00:01:24.859 00:01:24.869 corporations the TPP text is secret to
00:01:29.600 00:01:29.610 all except so-called cleared advisors in
00:01:33.160 00:01:33.170 the United States there are over 600
00:01:36.260 00:01:36.270 such clear trade advisors almost all of
00:01:39.859 00:01:39.869 whom represent corporations or industry
00:01:42.980 00:01:42.990 groups second they are hiding the fact
00:01:46.340 00:01:46.350 that the TPP is not so much about trade
00:01:48.859 00:01:48.869 as it is about deregulating the Pacific
00:01:51.350 00:01:51.360 economy providing super rights to
00:01:54.170 00:01:54.180 corporations
00:02:04.250 00:02:04.260 on the morning of Wednesday June 13 2012
00:02:09.780 00:02:09.790 the TPP investment chapter was leaked
00:02:13.760 00:02:13.770 the investment chapter is perhaps the
00:02:16.920 00:02:16.930 most important and the most dangerous
00:02:19.280 00:02:19.290 section of the whole agreement the
00:02:23.040 00:02:23.050 leaked text put authority over
00:02:25.740 00:02:25.750 environmental in climate policy into the
00:02:28.770 00:02:28.780 hands of business friendly international
00:02:30.740 00:02:30.750 tribunals many of them convened by the
00:02:34.200 00:02:34.210 World Bank in Washington DC and so what
00:02:37.350 00:02:37.360 did the corporation's affected do they
00:02:39.180 00:02:39.190 run to these international trade courts
00:02:41.160 00:02:41.170 and try to become more powerful than
00:02:44.370 00:02:44.380 governments themselves they try to
00:02:46.140 00:02:46.150 essentially replace democracy and public
00:02:49.350 00:02:49.360 policy with the rules that the
00:02:51.300 00:02:51.310 corporations write corporations would
00:02:53.610 00:02:53.620 like to just fight these battles with
00:02:55.320 00:02:55.330 high-priced lawyers in closed rooms in
00:02:58.350 00:02:58.360 Washington DC
00:03:00.230 00:03:00.240 00:03:05.699 00:03:05.709 the investment chapter would have
00:03:08.259 00:03:08.269 dangerous implications for the
00:03:09.940 00:03:09.950 environment a similar provision of the
00:03:13.240 00:03:13.250 US Ecuador bilateral investment treaty
00:03:15.910 00:03:15.920 allow the oil giant Chevron to sue the
00:03:20.080 00:03:20.090 government of Ecuador in the mid-1960s
00:03:25.020 00:03:25.030 Texaco which is now Chevron develop the
00:03:29.350 00:03:29.360 oilfield in the eastern ecuadorian
00:03:31.869 00:03:31.879 amazon the indigenous and local people
00:03:34.539 00:03:34.549 who live in this area say that Texaco
00:03:38.069 00:03:38.079 deliberately dumped billions of gallons
00:03:42.430 00:03:42.440 of toxic waste waters drilling muds and
00:03:45.160 00:03:45.170 oil into their environment causing a
00:03:47.259 00:03:47.269 social cultural and environmental crisis
00:03:49.979 00:03:49.989 jwharam
00:03:51.129 00:03:51.139 a school public chamber on a destroyed
00:03:53.800 00:03:53.810 of todo lo que es nuestra casa natural
00:03:56.379 00:03:56.389 this area was a pristine rainforest one
00:04:00.129 00:04:00.139 of the most ecologically diverse places
00:04:02.080 00:04:02.090 on the planet and the homeland to many
00:04:04.420 00:04:04.430 indigenous cultures but after Texaco
00:04:07.089 00:04:07.099 arrived it became a tropical wasteland
00:04:10.619 00:04:10.629 literally they would drill for oil and
00:04:13.199 00:04:13.209 dump the formation waters the drilling
00:04:16.180 00:04:16.190 muds they would just dump them into
00:04:17.710 00:04:17.720 online waste pits hundreds of online
00:04:20.050 00:04:20.060 waste pits Olympic size pool online
00:04:23.260 00:04:23.270 wastage and of course because it's a
00:04:25.689 00:04:25.699 rainforest these waste pits would
00:04:28.270 00:04:28.280 overflow into rivers and streams causing
00:04:31.330 00:04:31.340 what experts say is a reinforced
00:04:33.129 00:04:33.139 Chernobyl
00:04:44.320 00:04:44.330 the indigenous people and poor settlers
00:04:47.870 00:04:47.880 of the Oriente region suffered an
00:04:50.750 00:04:50.760 epidemic of cancer and other illnesses
00:04:52.810 00:04:52.820 they say resulted from Texaco stumping
00:04:56.740 00:04:56.750 death miscarriages and birth defects cut
00:05:01.760 00:05:01.770 a swath through communities threatening
00:05:04.370 00:05:04.380 some indigenous groups with extinction
00:05:09.230 00:05:09.240 the destruction of the Ecuadorian
00:05:11.420 00:05:11.430 rainforest with its world-class
00:05:13.870 00:05:13.880 biodiversity was also devastating this
00:05:18.230 00:05:18.240 rainforest Chernobyl affected an area
00:05:21.320 00:05:21.330 the size of Rhode Island and a
00:05:23.839 00:05:23.849 court-appointed independent expert in
00:05:25.969 00:05:25.979 Ecuador found that the damages from the
00:05:28.460 00:05:28.470 dumping amounted to twenty seven billion
00:05:31.339 00:05:31.349 dollars indigenous groups and
00:05:35.510 00:05:35.520 communities sought justice through the
00:05:37.939 00:05:37.949 courts and after 18 years of litigation
00:05:41.510 00:05:41.520 a provincial court in Ecuador ruled in
00:05:45.050 00:05:45.060 favor of the communities ordering
00:05:47.779 00:05:47.789 Chevron to pay 18 billion dollars but On
00:05:52.730 00:05:52.740 February 17 2012 an international
00:05:56.689 00:05:56.699 tribunal established under the US
00:05:59.540 00:05:59.550 Ecuador bilateral investment treaty put
00:06:03.020 00:06:03.030 all that in jeopardy the tribunal told
00:06:07.460 00:06:07.470 the president the Parliament and the
00:06:10.070 00:06:10.080 courts of Ecuador to suspend enforcing
00:06:13.129 00:06:13.139 the judgment against Chevron
00:06:24.240 00:06:24.250 people around the world wherever I
00:06:26.070 00:06:26.080 travel are dismayed by the Chevron
00:06:28.110 00:06:28.120 tribunals actions but the underlying
00:06:30.330 00:06:30.340 problem is the flawed model for us
00:06:33.120 00:06:33.130 bilateral investment treaties and
00:06:34.860 00:06:34.870 investment chapters in free trade
00:06:36.900 00:06:36.910 agreements the u.s. Ecuador bilateral
00:06:39.840 00:06:39.850 investment treaty is typical because it
00:06:41.790 00:06:41.800 favors the profits of big oil companies
00:06:43.800 00:06:43.810 mining multinationals and the wealthy so
00:06:48.240 00:06:48.250 why is it that the people that have
00:06:50.280 00:06:50.290 suffered the most the local and
00:06:52.260 00:06:52.270 indigenous populations why is it that
00:06:54.720 00:06:54.730 they don't have a voice at the
00:06:56.310 00:06:56.320 international investment tribunal why is
00:06:59.040 00:06:59.050 it that US policy favors financial
00:07:01.830 00:07:01.840 interests and big corporate interests
00:07:03.420 00:07:03.430 like those of Chevron over those of the
00:07:05.430 00:07:05.440 people or the environment the
00:07:07.230 00:07:07.240 overreaching of the Chevron tribunal
00:07:09.420 00:07:09.430 should be a warning to negotiators from
00:07:11.520 00:07:11.530 the United States and other Pacific
00:07:12.990 00:07:13.000 countries as they meet in coming months
00:07:15.210 00:07:15.220 to fashion a trans-pacific partnership
00:07:16.980 00:07:16.990 trade agreement the investment chapter
00:07:20.820 00:07:20.830 of the proposed trans-pacific
00:07:21.990 00:07:22.000 partnership would in effect create a
00:07:24.210 00:07:24.220 separate Court for capital now the
00:07:26.580 00:07:26.590 arbitrator's are the judges in these
00:07:28.650 00:07:28.660 tribunals are typically international
00:07:30.900 00:07:30.910 commercial lawyers who may one day serve
00:07:33.630 00:07:33.640 as independent quote unquote arbitrators
00:07:36.570 00:07:36.580 and then on the next day return as
00:07:38.490 00:07:38.500 corporate counsel the other thing is
00:07:41.700 00:07:41.710 that most arbitrators are actually from
00:07:43.500 00:07:43.510 the United States and Western Europe
00:07:45.030 00:07:45.040 while most boo defendants are from the
00:07:47.490 00:07:47.500 global south and so I call this a
00:07:49.680 00:07:49.690 kangaroo court the TPP investment
00:07:54.030 00:07:54.040 chapter would provide greater rights for
00:07:56.070 00:07:56.080 foreign investors these super rights for
00:07:58.560 00:07:58.570 big oil big pharma and wall street
00:08:00.930 00:08:00.940 investors go far beyond domestic
00:08:03.300 00:08:03.310 constitutional protections of property
00:08:05.190 00:08:05.200 rights and due process in the United
00:08:07.290 00:08:07.300 States in fact the u.s. already favors
00:08:10.110 00:08:10.120 property rights and corporate rights far
00:08:12.270 00:08:12.280 greater than almost every other country
00:08:13.980 00:08:13.990 in the world the worst thing about the
00:08:16.380 00:08:16.390 proposed TPP investment chapter is that
00:08:18.960 00:08:18.970 it would likely result in crippling
00:08:20.640 00:08:20.650 Awards of money damages against
00:08:23.100 00:08:23.110 scalloping countries now developing
00:08:25.710 00:08:25.720 countries some of them face billions in
00:08:28.020 00:08:28.030 liability and just the fear of such
00:08:30.659 00:08:30.669 ruinous judgments will force countries
00:08:33.120 00:08:33.130 to settle investor
00:08:35.060 00:08:35.070 even the ones that are unjust worse
00:08:37.820 00:08:37.830 countries will actually back away from
00:08:40.150 00:08:40.160 instituting new legislation and
00:08:42.290 00:08:42.300 regulations designed to protect the
00:08:44.540 00:08:44.550 environment protect public health and
00:08:46.610 00:08:46.620 the Public Interest some people call
00:08:49.400 00:08:49.410 this the chilling effect I call it the
00:08:52.760 00:08:52.770 deep freeze where you have sovereign
00:08:55.370 00:08:55.380 democracies that will actually be afraid
00:08:57.800 00:08:57.810 of regulating for the environment and
00:09:00.590 00:09:00.600 for people and people power is the way
00:09:11.120 00:09:11.130 to fight for a fair deal the people have
00:09:14.510 00:09:14.520 been demanding a fair deal all around
00:09:17.060 00:09:17.070 the Pacific Rim Jesse Jackson and Ben &
00:09:21.320 00:09:21.330 Jerry's spoke out in Chicago
00:09:23.710 00:09:23.720 the Peruvian people called for a fair
00:09:27.080 00:09:27.090 deal in Australia environmentalists and
00:09:31.160 00:09:31.170 trade unionists marched in solidarity
00:09:34.900 00:09:34.910 the Japanese called for economic justice
00:09:39.940 00:09:39.950 opposition to corporate power is
00:09:42.050 00:09:42.060 building in New Zealand Malaysians are
00:09:45.860 00:09:45.870 defending their national sovereignty
00:09:49.030 00:09:49.040 they are speaking out against the
00:09:52.010 00:09:52.020 international trade regime that pays
00:09:54.530 00:09:54.540 polluters rather than making polluters
00:09:57.380 00:09:57.390 pay they are speaking out against the
00:10:00.830 00:10:00.840 system in which property rights Trump
00:10:03.110 00:10:03.120 environmental responsibility they're
00:10:06.380 00:10:06.390 speaking out against kangaroo courts
00:10:09.020 00:10:09.030 making economic policy for the Pacific
00:10:11.750 00:10:11.760 region and saying that it's time to
00:10:15.380 00:10:15.390 throw the secret drafts of the
00:10:17.210 00:10:17.220 trans-pacific partnership into the
00:10:19.610 00:10:19.620 dustbin
00:10:30.380 00:10:30.390 00:10:35.590 00:10:35.600 00:10:56.889 00:10:56.899 you
00:10:59.040 00:10:59.050

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