~ TTIP ~

A CHARTER FOR DEREGULATION

AN ATTACK ON JOBS

AN END TO DEMOCRACY

THE BASICS

TTIP = Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

EU-US talks launched Feb 2013; aiming to conclude 2015

Negotiations held in secret between European Commission and US government officials every two months

EU has put a 30-year ban on public access to all key negotiating documents; US a 5-year ban from end of talks

MPs from EU member states (inc UK) also have no access to any of the key negotiating documents

IMPACTS PREDICTED

According to the European Commission’s own studies:

• At least one million people will lose their jobs as a direct result of TTIP, in EU and US combined

• EU admits “legitimate concerns” that many of these people will not find alternative work

• TTIP will add an extra 11m metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, and will further endanger biodiversity

THE THREE PILLARS

TTIP rests on three central pillars:

1. DEREGULATION

2. PRIVATISATION

3. NEW POWERS TO CAPITAL

1. DEREGULATIONTTIP is not a traditional trade agreement reducing border tariffs (tariffs between EU & USA are already minimal)

TTIP explicitly aims at ‘regulatory barriers’ to trade – i.e. environmental standards, labour rights, food safety rules

TTIP = particular threat in Europe, since EU regulations enshrine precautionary principle to protect public health

Precautionary principle: if there’s a risk that something is dangerous, it can’t be introduced (US has opposite: unless you can prove it’s unsafe, it can be introduced)

1. DEREGULATIONExamples of regulatory ‘barriers’ targeted by US producers:

• EU ban on GMOs

• EU ban on beef produced with bovine growth hormones

• EU ban on high levels of pesticide residue in food

• EU rules on toxic chemicals (REACH regulations)

EU (led by UK) in turn pushing for relaxation of US financial regulations introduced after the banking crisis of 2007-08

2. PRIVATISATIONTTIP seeks to expand reach of private sector companies into new markets

Public services and government procurement contracts included within TTIP negotiations, UK government confirms

UK government admits it wants TTIP to “complete the single market” in Europe by opening more to private sector

Also in USA: ‘Buy America’ provisions (key for protecting local jobs and small businesses) explicitly targeted by TTIP

3. NEW POWERS TO CAPITAL

TTIP represents the biggest single transfer of power to transnational capital in a generation

In particular, TTIP will introduce an ‘investor-state dispute settlement’ (ISDS) mechanism between EU and USA

This allows US corporations to sue EU states for policy decisions that could harm their profits in the future

Cases adjudicated by corporate lawyers in secret tribunals only open to foreign investors, bypassing domestic courts

3. NEW POWERS TO CAPITAL

Corporations already using such powers from other treaties:

• Vattenfall suing Germany for €5bn over nuclear phase-out

• Philip Morris suing Australia for plain cigarette packaging law

• Veolia suing Egypt for raising the minimum wage

• Achmea won against Slovakia for reversing health privatisation

• Occidental successfully sued Ecuador for $1.77bn

RESISTANCE BUILDING#NoTTIP has brought together strong coalition of trade unions, environmental, public health, digital and other activists

All UK trade unions fully opposed to TTIP; German, French and other EU unions also demanding halt to negotiations

EU forced to halt ISDS negotiations to run public consultation, which saw record 150,000 responses (50,000 from UK alone)

European Citizens’ Initiative on TTIP & CETA (EU-Canada) raised 1 million signatures in record two months across EU

MORE READING

MORE INFORMATION

• waronwant.org

• stop-ttip.org (ECI)

• nottip.org.uk