This is from three well-known labor economists, writing in support of the TPP:
If passed, the TPP also would create a powerful template for future trade deals, including with China, which would move the U.S. closer to resolving conflicts the WTO has been unable to handle. Consider, for example, the case of Qualcomm, a highly successful San Diego-based maker of chipsets for wireless communications that earns half of its global revenues in China. The company’s substantial share of the Chinese chip market attracted the attention of the Chinese government, which proceeded to extract $1 billion in fines for alleged anti-competitive practices. In the U.S., where Qualcomm also sells its chipsets, the company has faced no such anti-trust penalties.
Under current trade law, Qualcomm has little recourse to appeal its treatment by the Chinese government. Under a trade agreement with China like the TPP, however, Qualcomm and other U.S. companies would have access to an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. Contrary to criticism from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), this mechanism would protect U.S. firms against predatory regulatory interventions by member governments. Anti-competitive asymmetries in the world trade system disproportionately harm U.S. firms at present. Enactment of the TPP would establish protections against these asymmetries for U.S. companies.
I've asked around, and I can't get any answers from people as to whether the Chinese action against Qualcomm was a reasonable antitrust action or a "predatory regulatory intervention." If anyone has a view, feel free to express it in the comments!
The suggestion that ISDS could be used against antitrust/competition policy actions was something I hadn't thought of before. Would this mean that, in the future, Microsoft or Google could use ISDS in the TTIP -- if that happens -- to challenge the various European actions taken against them? And could a foreign investor bring an ISDS claim based on an action not taken against one of its competitors?
