By Mike Matejka

Almost 20 years ago, this country had a huge debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA?   Proponents promised it would boost all three partner countries, the U.S., Canada and Mexico, bringing jobs to workers and corporations profits.

Some companies and sectors probably did well with NAFTA. But American workers have watched jobs disappear and wages stagnate, and Mexico, which was supposed to be uplifted through NAFTA, has sunk into greater misery.

With a lot less public debate, Congress will soon consider the Trans-Pacific Partnership, what some critics call “NAFTA on steroids.” The strategic aim is to unite Pacific Rim countries, excluding China, into a partnership with the USA as a major player.

There’s a lot to criticize and consider here. I’ll just mention one part of the agreement, called the Investor State Dispute Settlement, the ISDS. If a company feels it was harmed by a law in a treaty partner, they can challenge that law and win monetary damages from the country charged.

Let us say the Food and Drug Administration has not finished testing and approved a new drug. The Japanese, Vietnamese or Australian drug company who developed the drug can sue the U.S. for restraining trade.   Who would hear the case? Not a judge, but a panel of international corporate attorneys.   If the U.S. is found in violation, who pays the fine? The U.S. taxpayers pay the fine.

Now let’s say some investigative journalist has uncovered that a Trans-Pacific Partnership country, let’s say Vietnam, has an employer who is using child labor. Child labor is banned under this treaty.   Can you and I, a labor union or a human rights organization than use the ISDS to challenge Vietnam? Nope.  ISDS is for corporations only. We would have to plead our case in the Vietnamese court system.

These Investor State Dispute Settlement systems are not new and some countries are using them already.   Recently, a French company sued Egypt after Egypt raised its minimum wage, claiming it harmed French investors.   A Swedish firm sued Germany when it curtailed it use of nuclear power. And all American Phillip Morris tobacco company is suing Uruguay because of new anti-smoking regulations, which Phillip Morris claims will hurt its profits.

Multinational corporations are powerful enough. Average people and communities fall victim too often to the whims of distant decision-making.   We don’t need mechanisms to increase that power, we need mechanisms to balance that power to protect human rights and our environment. The Trans-Pacific Partnership makes the matter worse.

Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs director for the Great Plains Laborers District Council, covering 11,000 union Laborers in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He lives in Bloomington with his wife and daughter and their two dogs. He served on the Bloomington City Council for 18 years, is a past president of the McLean County Historical Society and Vice-President of the Illinois Labor History Society.

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