Reuters: Germany Set to Reject Canada-European Union Trade Deal

The Thomson Reuters news agency is reporting that Germany is ready to reject a free trade deal that has been described by European Union officials as "a test for the one with the U.S."

U.S. trade negotiators have been pushing forward on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, despite the fact that "a wide range of German elected and civic leaders are in disbelief that the U.S. remains serious about including Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS)," said CWA President Larry Cohen, who met with leaders in Berlin earlier this month. Cohen said then that U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman "will hear from German leaders and others in Europe that continuing U.S. support for ISDS as an element in any trade deal is a non-starter."

That seems to be exactly what's happening.

German officials are objecting to clauses that give investors and multinationals extra legal protections and said these provisions could allow investors to stop or reverse laws. The German government said it could not sign the agreement with Canada "as it has been negotiated now," according to the news report.

An EU trade official in Brussels said if the deal with Canada is rejected "then the one with the United States is also dead."

That means now is the time to step up our actions and get the word out about the destructive investor and multinational protections in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal the U.S. is negotiating with 11 other Pacific Rim countries: Japan, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Canada.

We know corporations aren't people. Well, they aren't governments either and shouldn't have the ability to change the laws that our representatives enact by challenging them in secret tribunals.

The multinationals won't go away quietly. We expect a big push later this year for Congress to take up "fast track" authorizing legislation and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We need to make sure that every member of Congress hears from us and our allies that TPP and fast track have got to go.