>Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2000 15:41:00 -0500 (EST) >From: Robert Weissman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Subject: [corp-focus] TABD: Corporate Conspiracy >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-Mailman-Version: 1.1 >Precedence: bulk >List-Id: Sharp-edged commentary on corporate power ><corp-focus.lists.essential.org> >X-BeenThere: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Status: > >TABD: Corporate Conspiracy >By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > >Corporate rule is not built on a conspiracy. But that does not mean that >corporations never conspire. > >Sometimes corporate executives do gather in secret meetings and work to >plot collective approaches to advance Big Business's broad interests. Case >in point: the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD). > >The TABD is a grouping of top corporate executives from multinational >corporations in the United States and Europe. TABD CEOs meet annually with >top U.S. and European government officials, most recently this past week >in Cincinnati. The TABD's mission is to boost trade and investment between >the United States and Europe, as well as throughout the world. > >The CEOs in TABD are vigorously urging the launch of a new World Trade >Organization (WTO) negotiating round (the project that was stifled in >Seattle), and for other enlargements of the WTO. > >But the TABD's unique mission is to focus on the U.S.-EU relationship, and >push forward a deregulatory agenda that it hopes to then impose on the >entire world. > >The TABD is explicit that its concerns go way beyond traditional tariff >issues. "Elected representatives agreed in the Uruguay Round [the last >completed negotiating round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade >(GATT), which led to the creation of the WTO] to largely remove >traditional tariffs as inefficient restraints on economic liberty," >proclaims the TABD's 2000 Mid-Year Report. "The new obstacles to trade are >now domestic regulations." > >"Non-tariff barriers to operations should be tackled with the same zeal," >as tariffs were reduced, the report insists. > >The TABD inventory of domestic regulations that constitute "obstacles to >trade" is remarkably expansive. Among the areas where TABD has registered >complaints: differential standards for review of chemical safety, the U.S. >requirement that products be labeled with U.S. customary units >(inch/pound) instead of the metric system, differing national standards >for regulating electromagnetic fields (relevant to cell phone regulation), >restrictions on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising in the EU, >and potential U.S. emissions regulations for diesel engines for >recreational boats that may differ from the EU's. The TABD also argues >that the U.S. product liability system is a "serious impediment to >transatlantic trade and investment." > >A consistent theme of the TABD's list of complaints is inconsistency >between countries' regulations. The TABD CEOs view diversity of regulatory >approaches -- what should be viewed as among the blessings of democracy -- >as itself a trade barrier. > >To achieve uniformity, TABD ardently supports regulatory "harmonization" >-- formal international mechanisms to establish single global standards. A >second choice is Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs), by which different >regulatory regimes are declared equivalent, and products cleared in one >country are given a free pass into another -- even if the first country's >regulatory system is in fact inferior to the importing country's. > >For almost every regulatory complaint TABD lodges, the organization's >proposed solution is either harmonization or an MRA. The effort has been >enormously successful, with MRAs in place or in progress for everything >from electrical safety to pharmaceutical safety, and harmonization in >place or underway for areas ranging from road safety to aircraft noise. > >TABD-style uniformity virtually always involves the use of the weaker >standard, meaning consumer, environmental and worker well-being is put at >risk. Even more worrisome is how TABD uniformity would block regulatory >evolution. Once standard-setting is placed at the international level, it >is largely removed from the reach of citizen movements, making it far, far >harder to protest and lobby for strengthened biotech regulations, for >example. The MRAs also thwart regulatory enhancement, by enabling domestic >manufacturers to say that stiffer standards will unfairly disadvantage >them against importers who get a free pass under other countries' weaker >rules. > >To ensure that its anti-democratic demands are attended to by the >purportedly democratic governments of the United States and the EU, TABD >issues yearly scorecards on the trading partners' compliance with TABD >recommendations. And now it has established an "early warning system," so >that Big Business can force items onto the U.S.-EU negotiating agenda. >Among the top U.S. side concerns: Italian restrictions on genetically >modified foods and a European environmental regulation requiring >electronics manufacturers to provide for the recycling of discarded >products. > >Unfortunately, these series of recommendations are not just corporate wish >lists. When the TABD speaks, the governments listen (in fact, top public >officials are in the room with the CEOs at their annual gatherings). > >"It is difficult to overstate the effect the TABD has had on trade >liberalization," Undersecretary of Commerce Timothy Hauser told a >Congressional committee in 1997. "Virtually every market-opening move >undertaken by the United States and the EU in the last couple years has >been suggested by the TABD." > >But now, with help from groups like Corporate Europe Observatory >(www.xs4all.nl/~ceo) and Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch >(www.tradewatch.org) which have been tracking the TABD for years, the >growing movement against corporate globalization is learning of TABD's >scheming. > >With hundreds of informed and militant protesters shining a spotlight on >TABD last week in Cincinnati, the CEOs in TABD have at least been deprived >of the power that comes from being able to hatch their deregulatory plots >in secret. How effectively TABD will be able to function in the light of >day remains to be seen. > > >Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime >Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based >Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The >Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common >Courage Press, 1999). > >(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > > >_______________________________________________ > >Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber >and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or >repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on >a web site or publish it in print format, we ask that you first contact us >([EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]). > >Focus on the Corporation is distributed to individuals on the listserve >[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to corp-focus, send an e-mail >message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text: subscribe > >Focus on the Corporation columns are posted at ><http://www.corporatepredators.org>. > >Postings on corp-focus are limited to the columns. If you would like to >comment on the columns, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >
