The GreenplanetFM Podcast with Tim Lynch

Would you imagine that any government would be stupid enough to sign an international agreement that would allow overseas corporations to sue it, in secretive offshore tribunals claiming that new laws and regulations (for example a ban on fracking, GE, smoking control laws or a cap on electricity prices) have seriously undermined the value of their investments?Well, that is what the New Zealand Government and ten other countries around the Pacific Rim are negotiating right now under the TPPA, the secret Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, and President Obama wants it signed by October of this year. Of course the country that has the most to gain will be the US and their corporations!And do you really think the US needs our dairy products – the sale of which is the supposed benefit for NZ by joining the TPPA?From what has been gleaned so far, if the negotiations are completed it will make it much harder for governments to pass new laws, to look after the environment, promote health,  protect workers (from lon