Anti-TTIP demonstration in Brussels

A stop-TTIP message is painted on a road near the European Commission buildings, while more than 2000 protesters march through Brussels, joining citizens in 700 other cities across the EU and the US, in a day of action against the emerging Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and similar secretive international trade deals.

 

According to the coalition of citizens’ organizations that launched a self-organised European Citizens' Initiative on the free trade agreements (stop-ttip.org/), there are various reasons to worry about TTIP:

 

"1. A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY: If agreed, TTIP would give corporations the power to sue governments over decisions that could harm their future profits, undermining democratic decision-making made in the public interest.

 

2. A THREAT TO PUBLIC SERVICES: TTIP will create new markets in public services such as health and education, leading to greater liberalisation and privatisation. It would also make it very difficult to bring these services — as well as our energy and water — back under public control or renationalise them.

 

3. A THREAT TO FOOD SAFETY: Through a harmonisation of food safety regulation, EU food safety standards would be lowered to US levels. This would remove EU restrictions on genetically modified organisms GMOs), pesticides and hormone-treated beef.

 

4. A THREAT TO THE ENVIRONMENT: TTIP would see EU environmental regulations being harmonised and reduced to US levels, allowing a US-style fracking boom in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

 

5. A THREAT TO THE CLIMATE: With strong investor rights, TTIP would allow corporations to sue governments for bringing in new policies to leave fossil fuels in the ground.

 

6. A THREAT TO WORKERS’ RIGHTS: Workers’ rights could be reduced to US standards and businesses could relocate to US states and EU countries with the lowest labour standards.

 

7. A THREAT TO PERSONAL PRIVACY: Leaked documents indicate that TTIP could be used to reintroduce central elements of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which was rejected by the European parliament after popular protest. This could force internet providers to spy on their customers.

 

8. A THREAT TO FINANCIAL CONTROL: TTIP is set to remove many of the new financial regulations (such as banking safeguards) have been introduced since 2008 to prevent a future financial crash.

 

9. TTIP IS BEING NEGOTIATED IN SECRECY: While corporate lobbyists are playing an integral role in negotiations, the public have been shut out. All negotiators must sign nondisclosure agreements. There is no access to the draft text of the agreement — even for MPs — so most of what we know is from leaked documents.

 

10. TTIP IS A DANGEROUS BLUEPRINT FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD: If TTIP is agreed, countries in the global south will come under huge pressure to apply TTIP standards to avoid losing trade. The business lobby are upfront about their aim of creating ‘global convergence toward EU-US standards’. This would see free trade policies forced on poorer countries, that they have had no part in negotiating."

 

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