Our Rights are Not Negotiable!
Confronting the Risks of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) at the 17th Round of Negotiations held in Lima, Peru, May 15-24
Conrado Olivera, Coordinator of Red Uniendo Manos Peru and Jed Koball, Companionship Facilitator, Peru
“Our health is not negotiable! Our rights are not negotiable! Our sovereignty is not negotiable!” In unison, over 150 people shouted these words to negotiators working in the buildings above them as international press snapped photos and recorded video.
Protestors stand outside the Marriot in Lima where negotiators of the TPP are meeting. The boy´s sign reads ¨Our Health is Not Negotiable¨ Photo Credit: Red Uniendo Manos Peru
The May 17 protest was focused on the 17th round of negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the most ambitious multilateral trade initiative in history.
It drew concerned citizens outside the J.W. Marriot Hotel in the Miraflores District of Lima, to protest the secretive TPP negotiations under way in Lima from May 15-24. This was the 17th round of negotiations of the TPP, and the second time these negotiations have occurred in Peru.
The TPP is notable not only because of the wide breadth of disciplines and policy areas that it encompasses, but also because of the economic weight it carries among the Asian-Pacific region countries who are party to the United States-led negotiations: Australia, Brunei, Chile, United States, Peru, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, and Japan (which is to be incorporated in the coming months).
The issue at stake for Peruvians and organized opponents from other countries is that our most essential rights are placed at risk as our nations’ public policies are threatened by agreements reached among the involved countries in matters of regulatory coherence, investors’ rights, and intellectual property, among others.
The rights afforded to foreign investors in the Investment Chapter of these types of trade agreements is our most specific objection.
Foreign investors are provided with the means to file lawsuits in international forums, bypassing domestic courts, when they claim that their ambiguously named rights (such as “fair and equitable treatment” and “protection against indirect expropriation”) are being violated by the State in which they are operating. Such lawsuits not only remove the people affected by the actions of the investor from any participation in legal justice, they ultimately undermine the sovereignty of the nation in which it is operating as the State’s capacity to establish and enforce regulations is diminished and compromised by the interests of foreign investors.
This has been most demonstrably illustrated in Peru with the $800 million lawsuit filed by the Renco Group, Inc., against the State of Peru.
Despite more than 15 years of failing to comply fully with Peruvian environmental law as it contaminated the town of La Oroya with toxins emitted by its metallurgical smelter, the U.S. based corporation claims that Peru’s actions to enforce environmental regulations led to the bankruptcy of its investment, therefore violating its investor rights as guaranteed in the U.S. – Peru free trade agreement.
As this lawsuit continues in process in an international forum, it will ultimately be resolved far away from where the people most injured live, thus limiting their voice.
We also object to the proposed chapters on regulatory coherence which threatens to further undermine the sovereignty of the State in regulating industry, as well as the chapter on intellectual property which threatens not only individual expression on the internet, but also seeks to broaden the scope of patents on medication, which will prohibit access to needed medicines for the most vulnerable in our societies – all information gleaned from leaked documents.
For these reasons, the Red Uniendo Manos Peru, the Joining Hands network based in Lima, has joined forces with other organizations representing civil society in Peru to launch the “Not Negotiable” campaign against the ongoing negotiations of the TPP. We express our anguish at the lack of transparency in these negotiations, which are considered by many to be the most secretive negotiations ever in the era of free trade agreements.
A Woman from La Oroya leads protestors in chants directed to the negotiators of the TPP. Photo Credit: Red Uniendo Manos Peru.
Within the structure of the negotiations, we voiced our concerns not only through protest, but also through dialogue with government officials and negotiators. Prior to the 17th round of negotiations, Conrado Olivera, along with other representatives of civil society in Peru, met with the chief trade negotiator of Peru to present concerns about the Investment Chapter, calling for safeguards to protect environmental and public health laws, if not the chapters complete removal from the trade agreement.
During the round of negotiations, the Red Uniendo Manos also helped sponsor a public forum for the press and interested citizens, to provide further education about the risks of the Investment Chapter. This was part of a larger educational effort which is ongoing in Peru and can be found at www.nonegociable.pe
At an event sponsored by the Peru Ministry of Trade and Tourism, at which the majority of the negotiators were present and available to meet with registered stakeholders, Koball spoke individually with the chief trade negotiators of Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Mexico, and the United States to express the concerns of the Presbyterian Church (USA,) together with its partners of the Red Uniendo Manos Peru in regard to the Investment Chapter, given our experience in confronting the injustices in La Oroya in the Renco case.
Our presence in each of these spaces is critical to the functioning of democracy.
In accordance with the constitutions of Peru as well as of the United States, citizens have the right to raise concerns in the processes that pertain to public interest and in the systems in which our democratically elected governments are participating. Our voice must be heard in these spaces in order to promote the protection of our health and environment.
The 18th round of negotiations of the TPP will be held in Malaysia in late July, 2013. President Barack Obama of the United States is campaigning for a finished negotiation process by October of 2013.
Obama met with President Ollanta Humala of Peru on June 11 to further discuss the advances of the TPP.
