What (American(?) people seem to not see, is that treaties are also a deft workaround for things your interest group does not seem to get accomplished within your own country, since a treaty supersedes local law. This is a route that has been in use un the EU for a few decades now, and the telecom part of the TTIP seems to be not only aimed at the EU, but in my opinion more directly at the FTC. The (US) telcos already lost big last year when the FTC reclassified internet access as common carrier http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/fcc-votes-for-net-neutrality-a-ban-on-paid-fast-lanes-and-ti tle-ii/ So it is not very unusual to direct efforts at an international treaty where your nefarious conspiring will (hopefully) stay below the radar until it is too late, since consumer organizations are conspicuously absent from these negotiations.
Treaties also work to get things done inside one's own country
This is a route that has been in use un the EU for a few decades now, and the telecom part of the TTIP seems to be not only aimed at the EU, but in my opinion more directly at the FTC. The (US) telcos already lost big last year when the FTC reclassified internet access as common carrier http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/fcc-votes-for-net-neutrality-a-ban-on-paid-fast-lanes-and-ti tle-ii/
So it is not very unusual to direct efforts at an international treaty where your nefarious conspiring will (hopefully) stay below the radar until it is too late, since consumer organizations are conspicuously absent from these negotiations.
The New Carl Hiaasen?
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