Early in June a draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was leaked. The TPP is nominally a trade agreement with eight Asian nations, but only a small part is about trade. The major part of the TPP grants loads of rights to international corporations and locks those rights in place with an international tribunal of three corporate lawyers.

The tribunal would have the power to override U.S. law and issue penalties for failure to comply with its ruling. The court's decisions are superior to the U.S. Supreme Court and are unappealable.

Business has been in on the TPP, but we haven't, not even Senators on the Senate Trade Committee had access. It is all quite secret because it will enable more offshoring of millions of American jobs; it will halt labeling such as "Buy American" or "Dolphin Free Tuna," "No GMOs" etc. It will give drug manufacturers rights to keep medicine prices high by limiting generics. It will give corporations the tools to attack environmental, safety and health safeguards.

Opponents of a proposed trans-Pacific free trade zone will protest the 13th round of negotiations set to begin today at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.

The United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Canada are set to take part in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

A coalition of groups affiliated with the Occupy San Diego movement and organized labor say they will protest outside the hotel and a "Fair Trade Not Free Trade'' rally led by the San Diego and Imperial County Labor Council will begin at noon in an adjacent park.

This evening, a five-night event called "People's Conference: A Better World Is Possible!'' will begin at the Logan Heights Public Library. The conference will be in different locations each night.

A march through downtown is scheduled for Saturday.

Opponents say the proposed trade deal would send jobs to low-wage countries, attack environmental and consumer safety standards, and expand the deregulation of banks, hedge funds and insurance companies, among other things.

They complained about the secretive nature of the negotiations.

They've picked up an unlikely ally in Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, a conservative businessman who said he shares the concern over secretiveness when it comes to intellectual property rights and Internet freedom. Last week, he asked Ron Kirk, the U.S. trade representative, to let him and his staff observe the negotiations.

Carol Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative told KPBS a free-trade zone will allow the U.S. to export more products to Asia and other Pacific nations, leading to more jobs at home. But labor organizations and the Occupy movement say the agreement will result in more jobs being sent offshore.

San Diego Congressman Bob Filner has expressed dismay that the negotiations are not more public and noted that he voted against the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. Congressman Darrell Issa asked to attend the negotiations but was turned down.

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): More Power to Corporations to Attack Nations

Extreme Foreign Investor Rights & Private Enforcement Would Promote Offshoring, Attacks Against Our Laws

Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "free trade" agreement, foreign firms would gain an array of privileges:

Rights to acquire land, natural resources, factories without government review
Risks and costs of offshoring to low wage countries eliminated
Special guaranteed “minimum standard of treatment” for relocating firms
Compensation for loss of “expected future profits” from health, labor environmental, laws (indirect or “regulatory” takings compensation)
Right to move capital without limits
New rights cover vast definition of investment: intellectual property, permits, derivatives
Ban performance requirements, domestic content rules. Absolute ban, not only when applied to investors from signatory countries
A major goal of U.S. multinational corporations for the TPP is to impose on more countries a set of extreme for-eign investor privileges and rights and their private enforcement through the notorious “investor-state” system. This system elevates individual corporations and investors to equal standing with each TPP signatory country's government- and above all of us citizens.

Under this regime, foreign investors can skirt domestic courts and laws, and sue governments directly before tribunals of three private sector lawyers operating under World Bank and UN rules to demand taxpayer compensation for any domestic law that investors believe will diminish their "expected future profits." Over $675 million has been paid to foreign investors under U.S. trade pacts, while over $12 billion in claims are pending on environmental, safety, and public health policies under U.S. trade deals.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), also known as the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, is a multilateral free trade agreement that aims to further liberalize the economies of the Asia-Pacific region. In 2007, negotiations, which are still ongoing, began for an expanded version of the agreement, encompassing a larger group of countries. These negotiations have drawn criticism and protest from the public and elected officials, in part due to the secrecy of the negotiations and a number of controversial clauses in draft agreements leaked to the public.