Dear Editor,

The Harper government is poised to ram through without public input yet another piece of legislation demonstrably not in the national interest.

It is, however, very much in the corporate interest - a venue for which Harper has increasingly demonstrated his predilection.

The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership is a multilateral free-trade agreement that aims to further liberalize the economies of the Asia-Pacific region. Currently, 13 countries are party to the negotiations, including Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, corporations would gain an array of privileges:

. Rights to acquire land, natural resour-es, factories without government review;

. Elimination of risks and costs of off-shoring to low-wage countries;

. Compensation for loss of "expected future profits" from environmental laws; and

. Right to move capital without limits. The TPP will impose a set of extreme foreign investor privileges and rights and their private enforcement through the notorious "investor-state" system. 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."

I would strongly suggest that this might be worth a call to your local MP.

Braun McAsh, Maple Ridge