It will certainly make it a lot easier for VW lobbyists to kill legislation intended to regulate them this way.
It isn't a 'secret court':
* 9.23.1 Documents from the complainant are submitted and they should "make them available to the public"
* 9.23.2 "The tribunal shall conduct hearings open to the public"
Of course there is a section (9.23.4) detailing that complainants can withold any 'protected information' so perhaps in practice the process will not be as transparent as proponents would have us believe.
There is nothing about 'damages equal to their lost profits':
* Awards (9.28.4) "the only damages that may be awarded are those that the claimant has proven were sustained in the attempt to make the investment, provided that the claimant also proves that the breach was the proximate cause of those damages. If the tribunal determines such claims to be frivolous, the tribunal may award to the respondent reasonable costs and attorney's fees"
I think there is much that's disagreeable about the TPP but detractors relying on falsehoods opens TPP opposition up to easy attacks relying on the fallacist's fallacy.
[1] http://www.mfat.govt.nz/downloads/trade-agreement/transpacif...
But if, for instance, VW cars were measured to have too high emissions, I see nothing in this article that would prevent justice from demanding access to the source code to audit it.
Alas I would absolutely prefer states to mandate this sort of source code to be open-sourced, but I think that makes me stand firmly in the minority.
It's not so much a question of regulation as establishing a truer cost for what is produced/consumed. If the above is correct the TPP will basically mandate obscurity on (again this particular issue as an example) that indirectly impacts everyone who must continue to exist on this planet.
The TPP is a government signing away its sovereignty and duty to protect its citizens, for both will take second place to expected future profits.