Man, Australia is getting a wee bit uppity don't cha think? What do they think they are some kind of sovereign country? What about the rights of the corporate person? Corporations need love too.

Maybe the Aussies just need to sit down and have a beer with these corporations. Corporations talk you know. The Supreme court says the do, so it must be true. If they can talk I imagine they must be able to drink a beer, because to talk you have to have a mouth.

So me saying they should sit down with a corporation and have a chat over a few beers can't be as stupid as it is. Just ask the US Supreme court, and I imagine, Mittens too. (Just be sure the corporation you are drinking with is at least 21 years old. I would hate to see anyone get in trouble for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, corporation...)

With "B.O." on the lookout for more campaign cash, I can only guess whose interests he is looking out for.

"Australia has reiterated its opposition to these so-called “investor rights” in this broader trade deal."

I guess their Supreme Court doesn't believe that corporations are "people"!

nah...... I say stuff the korporations with vegimite! Lot's & lot's of it.....

I don't suppose the 2,500 troops the U.S. will station in Australia (news of which was announced right after Philip Morris filed its lawsuit last year) will protect it from this.

imagine the nerve of a country to imagine that they should control their own laws and living spaces

here in amerika we have totally abandoned that notion - even though we were the ones who came up with it in the first place

we didn't decide to give up those rights in a vote or anything like that

no we allowed the corporations to buy the political process/politicians (sic), the judiciary and the media and then use their new found assets to do the dirty work for them

fair and square

so what if they undermined our best interests. so what if it is in direct contradiction to the constitution

so what if these corporations have ruined the country and brought millions of amerikans to homelessness, and poverty

so what if these corporations have seen fit to poison our food supply, poison our medicine, ruin our education system, and develop a never ending series of vaccines that destroy our immune systems, kill our sperm, cause cancer, heart disease and destroy cognitive function

so what if theses same corporations have created a derivative/financial product pile of worthless debt that has been estimated to be around 600 trillion dollars, ensuring that we will forever be debt peons to their made up and nonexistent "contracts" that are secret undisclosed and unregulated

so what if these corporations use their blow boy politicians to start resource wars that we the sheeple never get to benefit from

so what if they kill hundreds of millions of people in doing so

so what if they produce working policy papers that indicate their intentions to kill off billions of people in order to "save" the planet - the same planet that they have ruined with their pollution - which they blame on us the sheeple

so what if these corporations own every candidate including the monster in the whitehouse who are currently running for the presidency - creating the illusion of a competition for that same office when no matter who wins - they win

so what

the important thing is that they should be able to sell their cancer causing cigarettes wherever the fuck they want

that's the important thing

c'mon let's be reasonable here...

This is how the "free trade" - which the left seems to gone to sleep on over the past 11 years - works. Investors could never sue their own national, state or local governments, becasue of sovereignty, but under "free trade", corporations can sue foreign governments for loss of "enjoyment" of their investment, suing them for stupendous sums of estimated lost profits into the distant future.

For example, under NAFTA, the Ethyl corporation sued Ontario for 1 billion dollars for banning the toxic gasoline octane additive MTBE, while Canadian sister corporation Methenex sued California for a comparable amount becasue of a ban on MTBE there. Both California and Ontario were forced to drop their ban in the face of the lawsuits.

Similarly, tobacco corporation cannot sue the US government for mandated graphic cigarette pack warnings - but they can sue Australia - and if it were not cheaper to get rid of a profit-hurting laws by just buying up the politicians, Philip Morris could simply open a Canadian or Colombian subsidiary which could then sue the US.

Of course, these "free trade" deals are just a prelude to the next step, getting rid of a even internal control of a sovereign state over capitalist interests. The work-around, for now, is the buying of politicians, but they'd prefer that pure capitalist sovereignty over the people to be codified by law.

Australia standing up strong (so far) to American corporate interests is not surprising, as that country made the strategic decision over a decade ago to align themselves economically with the Far East. The symbolic manifestation of that was the Australian Soccer Federation moving from the Oceania Soccer Confederation to Asia's. It should be noted that Asian corporate culture is quite a bit more nationalistic, and prods their respective governments to encourage and protect their businesses. This is in stark contrast to the American corporate class, which has outright contempt for its own countrymen / workers to the level of a criminal sociopath. Expect the Australians to politely but firmly tell the White House to get stuffed if they shill for the 31 corporate lobbying groups (which will probably depend upon how much campaign $$ they contribute), and progressives should cheer the Australians on.

Ironic how american corps sound like a bunch of sophisticated cry babies when their assumed priviledges are not bestowed upon them. Maybe we all should just allow them to sit and stew in their little toxic poopie diapers.

Canada is vulnerable to these 'investor' lawsuits having signed NAFTA...

The province of Newfoundland revoked Abitibiowater's water and timber rights when they closed a pulp mill there which the government, logically, was entitled to do since the water and timber rights were contingent on that mill operating...

But Abitibi had a complete snit given their big fat sense of entitlement, they thought they should have their cake and eat it too. The provincial premier said f**k you -- he was a hero for standing up to this foreign corporation but the PM of Canada - Steve Harper, immediately caved, got all apologetic, and paid the company millions of dollars of tax payer's money without as much as a fight as i recall... pathetic corporate ass-kisser that he is.

Austrailia would be very wise to shun any trade deal involving this legal vulnerability/affront to their sovereignty.

As Canada well knows, these trade deals (eg NAFTA) are invariably lopsided in favour of the large multinational corportations most of which are American based - and these lawsuits just add insult to injury.

Keep the push on. AVAAZ has 2 petitions up - one on media monopoly and mining (yes its not a mistake) and one for worlds largest marine reserve - but all of the petitions up are worth looking at

http://www.avaaz.org/en/index.php

It seams the focus of people who care about people is about thirty years behind reality. The Corporate State is here now. They are buying and dismantling the Nation States. The people will not be able to use current governments to fight off the Corporate State takeover. Direct action by the people against the Corporate State will not be successful if we continue to put our hopes for survival in staying with the sinking lifeboat that was the Nation State. It's time to swim or sink.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... The Supreme Court may decide U.S. corporations cannot be sued for grievances abroad. Unbelievable viewing.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101714122

Screw the US. Find your own iron ore/aluminum/nickel/copper/zinc/gold/diamonds.... if you can. Listen up Yanks, you don't have many friends left. Play nice with what you have.

Don't worry the whole world economy will crash and everything becomes moot.

When the screwees screw the screwettes and the screwors get screwed then all will be well in the world. One more shot in the foot should do it. Good move mate.

There are issues of national sovereignty here. Particularly in the US, where multinational corporations, avoid paying lots of tax to the US government, and rip off others using cheap labor, and environment pollution. They expect to be the major lobby group that runs US foreign and trade policy. And now they want to run all other governments too. They probably believe that its for everyones good. Its about time they paid some big enforced taxes. Corporations get government control so cheaply. They only have to bribe members of the political parties instead of paying proper taxes, and control the results of elections by outspending on media. This makes the US a moneycrazy, instead of a democracy.

good on ya mates! it's a fairly old wto thing (that's what Seattle was about) and it must be understood that "free trade", like our brand of export "democracy" is a term that only works on opposites day- it's forced trade, as this story makes very clear.
this is how clinton killed Haiti's rice farmers, and Mexican corn and ......not enough space here to list them all

The control of capitol flow across borders is what saved Malaysia from financial collapse during the Asian crisis of the late 1990's. While currency speculators moved funds into and then out of countries like Thailand and Indonesia, causing a run-up in their currency value and then a catastrophic collapse, Malaysia refused to play the game. Their government blocked the transfers of currency out of the country at the time the speculators hoped to cash in on a crash, and saved their country from the financial pain that lingered in other countries for nearly a decade.

I can see why US corporations would be opposed to the ability of foreign nations to prevent this elsewhere in the future.

The Corporate State defeats the Nation State weapon used Corruption

"these rules are in every U.S. trade agreement"

Trade agreements are absolutely 100% bogus. As yet another idea spawned by/for elites, at the people expense, you can guess this much. Here's why: The people simply do not need elite ideas. Since the people are far better off conceiving their own ideas and making their own decisions, elite ideas must be dismissed out of hand. There is no compromise because elites are nothing more than parasites on the people. Particularly those who represent Das Korporations. Thus sharing decision-making with elites is the same as sharing parts of our bodies with them for their dinner feast. Obviously out of the question. When elites say "trade agreement" this phrase translates in the people's language as the following: "a set of rules designed by elites to take control of economies out of the people's hands". Obviously this won't fly. Oh, in the recent past it might have. But today is different. And the elites are frantic. This is the big news of the day. Think tanks and pundits may not see it yet. But today the people are gaining awareness, seeing the light. It's an exciting time for the people, of course. Bad news for elites.

The death throes of empire.

Why is Australia allowing us to build military outposts there?

Sarah Anderson, tell me what this is really about. There is very little in the article about the exact complexion of the suit.

"Philip Morris, of the Marlboro empire, filed a suit against Australia last year, demanding compensation for that country’s plain packaging laws for cigarettes."

Like what does that really mean? Are they not posting that cigarettes are a deadly killer on the package? Is Australia using the Marlboro logo on their packaging. To what are they objecting?

Go, Aussies, go!

Yes, it's time to elect a new government and remove ourselves from all these so-called "free" trade agreements. We need our sovereignty back.

Australia is an idiotic country run by severely retarded people who cannot think for themselves. So they are going to take on the tobacco industries??, meanwhile they allow Australian tobacco companies to produce cigarettes with regular packaging a long as they are sold overseas at 1 third the price. Australia has never been able to think for itself, has and always will be nothing more than a puppet state that grovels to the USA and Britain, ( allowing US bases and troops into Australia, at the cost of $8 million dollars a day to the Australian taxpayer, signing the treaty against cluster bombs, but now they will be stored here, because our pals in the USA gave the orders). What a shame it could have been a great country, but when you look at what we elect as leaders its easy to understand. Check the current Prime Minister out, guilty of stealing millions of dollars,failed the last two years of high school, finally made it to University where her grades were way below par. Australians need to damn well WAKE UP!!!

What the article doesn't articulate is that the case is the cigarette companies saying that by not being able to use their brands on their packets by law, the government is infringing its use of its intellectual property.

There are a raft of other laws against cigarettes including the inability to smoke indoors in any public building and in many covered areas of public buildings, which is pretty harsh on smokers in some Australian climates. They also have to be kept out of sight at points of sale (behind closed cabinets). The companies cannot advertise And taxes aimed at tobacco and alcohol mean that cigarettes cost about 4 times what they should.
The thing about these big trade agreements is that we barely import much from America any more, most of our consumer goods come from asia. The Chinese, however can put whatever they want in a trade agreement. As long as they buy our iron ore and coal. We're now the obedient servant of a new master.

Hurray to Australia for standing up for what is best for the people and the planet. Maybe Australians can urge their commonwealth cousins in Canada to push Ottawa to do the same.

We are trying to push Congress here, but as you Aussies and Canadians know, our Congress is bought and paid for by the corporate elite.

Perhaps the Aussies could come to Canada and show us how it's done...

"Thirty-one U.S. corporate lobby groups" have the audacity to write of "the United States, its recent trade and investment agreements reflect core legal principles based on our Constitution ... ."
There is no provision in the Constitution to pass agreements.
The "impartial review" envisioned by founders was assigned to the Supreme Court. Any change to an "international tribunal" would require a Constitutional Amendment. These thirty-one lobbyist write treason.