Trade agreements smell like rotten fish. People do not count in these agreements at all.

The huge leak of trade agreement documents reveal that officials have acknowledged the purpose of the treaties are not to stimulate trade by removing tariffs between countries  and the U.S., but to remove regulatory ‘barriers’ restricting the potential profits to be made by transnational corporations.

Some of these ‘barriers’ are in fact, standards and environmental regulations including labour rights, food safety rules as well as regulations on the use of toxic chemicals, digital privacy laws, and banking safeguards.

The stakes could not be higher.

Subjects covered in the leak include food safety standards and include details of more specific threats.The documents also reveal that U.S. corporations will be granted unprecedented powers over any public health or safety regulations introduced in the future.

If countries do bring in laws to raise standards, it grants U.S. investors the right to sue for loss of profits in corporate court systems — which will be unavailable to domestic firms or governments.

Essentially, companies can sue governments but governments cannot sue companies.