Don Quijones — Germany U-Turns, Torpedoes Corporate Sovereignty Charter in Trade Agreements, Joins Growing Resistance

The reason this could be of paramount importance – not only for Germans but for all Europeans, Canadians and Americans – is that the investor state dispute settlements (ISDS) that Germany now seems reluctant to accept are precisely what give trade agreements like CETA, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) their long canine teeth: they allow private companies to sue entire nations whenever they feel that a new law lost them money on their investment.

Historic U-Turn

Whether Germany’s reservations are genuine or whether they merely form part of last-minute horse trading is still too early to tell. However, it’s certainly telling that Süddeutsche Zeitung’s allegations come hard on the heels of a statement by Brigitte Zypries, a Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, that Berlin is determined to exclude arbitration rights from the EU-US trade deal (TTIP) as well. “From the perspective of the [German] federal government, U.S. investors in the European Union have sufficient legal protection in the national courts,” she said.
If completed, Germany’s U-turn could well be a serious game changer, for two reasons. First, as home to the largest economy in Europe which is effectively backstopping the cratering economies on the periphery, Germany wields more influence over EU decision making than any other Member State. Second, Germany has been a major advocate of ISDS for decades. Indeed, the first ever bilateral investment treaty (BIT) was agreed between Germany and Pakistan, in 1959.…

But now Germany appears to be getting cold feet, having had a bitter foretaste of the potential consequences of handing over what remains of its national sovereignty to the Global Corporatocracy. If, in the end, Merkel’s coalition government does refuse to sign on the dotted line, the European Commission will have little option but to take the ISDS clause out; because of the nature of CETA and TTIP, all 28 EU member states must approve it before it is fully ratified.

Wolf Street
Germany U-Turns, Torpedoes Corporate Sovereignty Charter in Trade Agreements, Joins Growing Resistance
Don Quijones