Concerned about trade agreement

I was pleasantly surprised at this morning’s McClatchy feature on Trans-Pacific Partnership opposition. It raised the timely issue of food safety, and our country’s potential to lose our control over our sovereignty to the ISDS, an international tribunal of corporate lawyers that decides whether your law violates a company’s right to make a profit in your country. At issue is country-of-origin meat labelling our U.S. regulation requires. Through NAFTA, Canadian and Mexican ranchers have taken this to the WTO tribunal for nullification. You and I won’t get to know where our meat comes from, just as we lost the “dolphin-free tuna” labelling a few months ago. These unappealable rulings can apply to any subject, from bank regulations to pharmaceutical monopolies.

Bellingham

This story was originally published June 12, 2015 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Concerned about trade agreement."