Search Results for: ttip
What's the current situation as regards TTIP, TPP, CETA, TiSA, and what's the future for trade deals?
It’s been a very confusing time for TTIP and other pro-corporate trade deals. There has been huge public opposition to them, often based around the fact that they would allow corporations to sue elected governments if they introduce policies that threaten their profits – even environmental legistlation or a minimum wage! The Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump, who has said that he opposes TTIP, have muddied the waters even more. Here’s Linda Kaucher of STOP TTIP uk with an overview of where we are now, what may happen in future, and how we might respond …
How CETA will allow TTIP (RIP) in through the back door, and how you can help the Austrian Chancellor block it
Here are two sources of information about CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) – and both of them are completely biased. They are biased against the interests of the corporate sector and in favour of the interests of ordinary people and communities. That’s the kind of bias we like.
CETA is a similar EU deal to TTIP, but with Canada instead of the US. As most US multinationals have branches in Canada, it will allow most of the nonsense included in TTIP (like allowing corporations to sue governments if their profits are threatened – even by things like health and safety …
Ha Joon Chang: 'increasing corporate power is at the heart of TTIP'
Ha Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism and Economics: The User’s Guide explains that TTIP is not about ‘free trade’ – trade is already more-or-less free. TTIP is about helping corporations to sue countries if they dare to do anything – anything at all – that can be shown to get in the way of corporate profits.
We have to stop TTIP, as it will strengthen corporate power in almost irreversible ways.
Please watch the video below about the results of similar trade deals in Canada, and share it with anyone you think …
Obama says we'll be 'at the back of the queue' for TTIP if we leave the EU; that's the best argument I've heard for Brexit
… geared towards exports. And they’re better jobs – more interesting, better paid, more creative. See here for more on this.
TTIP:
is secretive
will accelerate the privatisation of the NHS
will transfer wealth from taxpayers to corporations
will transfer business from small companies to corporations
will allow corporations to sue governments for introducing policies that potentially reduce their profits
So President Obama telling us that leaving the EU will make it less likely that we’ll be part of these trade deals (and specifically TTIP) is one of the best reasons I can think of for leaving the EU.
I
Can you think about sending this letter (or something similar) to your MP about TTIP?
Can you take 10 mins to send this letter, or something very similar, to your MP? People have been asking MPs some of these questions and getting silly answers, which suggests we are hitting a nerve – so we need to keep on hitting it.
Please let us know if you have written, and to which MP.
NB: here’s lots more info about TTIP, to inform, entertain, but mostly horrify.
————————————————————————————————————————————-
Dear (MP)
I have these concerns and questions about the EU so-called ‘trade’ agreements and I would appreciate a response at your earliest convenience.
The US/EU TTIP (Transatlantic …
Public support for TTIP has plummeted in Germany and the US to 17% and 15% respectively
… on just how much better everyone’s life was going to be when corporations could sue elected governments if they introduce any legislation at all (including environmental protection, food safety, minimum wage or protecting the NHS) that negatively affects their ability to make profit.
See here for more articles on TTIP.
Germans are more against TTIP than other European countries, but the trend across Europe is against TTIP.
A word about ‘trade’, which is mentioned in the first paragraph of the report. Personally, I don’t have a problem with trade. It means that you don’t have to be …
Read this German MP's account of the TTIP reading room and decide what you think about TTIP 'transparency'
… more on the ‘transparency room’.
So now, German MP Katja Kipping, bless her, has written of her experiences, and to make sure that access isn’t denied to German MPs, she’s written about what she didn’t see there. Over to Katja
———————————————————
What I didn’t read in the TTIP reading room
TTIP, the EU-US free trade deal, has secrecy written all over it. Those responsible for it live in dread of any public scrutiny. If it was up to me, I would give everyone who’s interested the chance to make up their own minds on the …
NHS Chief Executive was a founder member of an organisation lobbying for health to be included in TTIP
Just allow a few seconds for that to sink in. Simon Stevens was Vice President of UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the US. He was in charge of global expansion of their business. Now he’s Chief Executive of the NHS. He was a founder member of the Alliance for Healthcare Competitiveness, a pro-TTIP lobby group that campaigned for health to be included in TTIP, a trade deal that allows multinational corporations to sue governments who introduce legislation that harms their profits. See here and here for more of an explanation of this.
This is from the …
US bans pipeline, TransCanada sues US taxpayers for $15 billion. How TTIP will transfer wealth from taxpayers to corporations
… the way of corporate profits – not environmental protection, not the NHS, not health and safety legislation, not communities, not protecting small businesses, not democracy – nothing. Australia introduces plain packaging for cigarettes, they get sued by Philip Morris. That’s the way the world is going unless we oppose treaties like TTIP. You won’t read about this in the corporate media, because the corporate media is part of the corporate sector – why would they alert the public to the dangers of TTIP, in terms of democracy and sustainability, when they are set to gain from it?
Recently, President Obama has …
What will TTIP mean for European farmers?
… want to support small farmers producing for local markets, and we don’t need the economic growth promised by TTIP either. So even in it’s ‘best-case scenario’ guise, TTIP is undesirable.
On the eve of the Real Farming Conference, I’m surprised not to see a session on TTIP or trade deals on the programme, as TTIP will promote Transatlantic trade over local trade, large over small, and provide a barrier to all the wonderful things that the conference is promoting.
Here’s the report.
Here’s an introduction to TTIP.
Over to David Margolies of Stop TTIP …
What will TTIP mean for small companies and local economies?
… of TTIP on local economies and SMEs, and below is an article by Richard Elsner of MORE (Movement for Responsibility in Trade Agreements).
———————————————————————————————–
Once agreed, TTIP will be effectively impossible to reverse. Since the autumn of 2014, the EC has frequently stated that SMEs stand to get more benefit from TTIP than large companies, especially in terms of the removal of “red tape” and burdensome bureaucratic steps involved in exporting to the USA. Strangely, SMEs were hardly mentioned when TTIP was first promoted. European SMEs need to have their eyes open before assuming that TTIP really will be in their …
TTIP: investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) may be illegal under EU law
… institutions to the corporate sector. This seems to be all the rage these days, and it’s a shame that it’s not reported more in the, er, corporate press. Oh yes, that’ll be the reason. However, we have the internet now – who needs the corporate press any more? TTIP isn’t a done deal – we can still fight it. More on TTIP here.
Now I don’t know how this is going to pan out, but environmental law group Client Earth have produced a report showing that any ISDS provision within a trade treaty with the EU may …
Corporations suing elected governments for introducing laws that reduce their profits isn't new, but TTIP will make it much worse
It’s called Investor-state Dispute Settlement (ISDS), and it’s a mechanism whereby corporations can sue governments that introduce legislation that they claim reduce their potential to make profit – for example, requiring plain packaging for cigarettes (Australia and Uruguay sued) or introducing a minimum wage (Egypt sued) or introducing a moratorium on fracking (Canada sued). In our current economic system, reducing corporate profits cannot be allowed, and ISDS is a way of ensuring that they’re not. These cases are heard in special tribunals outside the normal court system, and rulings are by a team of privately-appointed arbitrators …
How TTIP fits perfectly with the Deregulation Act, which can overrule all other laws if they affect growth or corporate interests
The Deregulation Bill, proposed by Tory privatiser Oliver Letwin, slipped into law at the end of the last Parliament. It can change all other law, according to criteria of ‘growth’ i.e. business interests. It fits perfectly with the EU’s deregulatory agenda, and that of TTIP and the other new ‘trade’ agreements, which have largely come out of the City of London via the UK government anyway.
Summary: The UK Deregulation Act has attracted little attention. However it is meta-regulation that enforces the prioritising of the interests of business to deregulate over the public interest in maintaining and …
How much do you know about TTIP? Take the quiz
Here is a quiz developed by the wonderful Transnational Institute to test your knowledge of TTIP.
The quiz is intended to increase everyone’s critical knowledge of TTIP, and especially ISDS. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has gained considerable attention last year. The Investor to State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) has emerged as the most contentious part of the free trade agreement.
There are currently 3200 investment treaties in the world. An important part of many of these investment agreements is a contentious mechanism by which companies can sue governments in private tribunals outside the regular court system. This …
Overview of TTIP, and why Europeans are very unhappy about it
… global legal and economic system: TPP, TTIP, TISA
The EU commission has suggested the removal of ISDS from the negotiations, but that didn’t please US corporations one little bit:
EU Trade Commission suggests removal of corporations’ right to sue governments from TTIP negotiations; US very unhappy
Here’s what TTIP will mean for health services in Europe:
Why we need to stop TTIP if we care about the national health services of European countries
And here’s a hilarious infographic explaining what ‘transparency’ means in terms of TTIP:
This is what transparency means when it comes to TTIP
The …
EU Trade Commission suggests removal of corporations' right to sue governments from TTIP negotiations; US very unhappy
The biggest objection from the European public to the proposed TTIP trade deal (see here if you don’t know about it) is that multinational corporations will be able to sue elected governments (national or local) if it can be shown that legislation reduces corporate profits in any way. This could mean legislation for environmental protection, supporting local, small businesses or public health – in fact Philip Morris have already taken two governments to court in exactly this way (Australia and Uruguay, for introducing plain cigarette packaging).
This provision for corporations to sue governments (and remember that any compensation comes from …
This is what 'transparency' means when it comes to TTIP
Hilarious infographic by SumOfUs on what ‘transparency’ means in TTIP negotiations. But of course it isn’t funny at all. We’d like to see an economy of small businesses – local shops and firms, co-ops, self-employed, smallholders, community-owned businesses etc. TTIP will do exactly the opposite – it will involve a massive transfer of wealth and power to the corporate sector from – well, from everybody else.
This is why negotiations are happening in secret. If people really understood that any government could be sued by multinational cigarette corporations for introducing plain packaging, or by oil companies for preventing …
Why we need to stop TTIP if we care about the national health services of European countries
As negotiations continue between Europe and the US on the Transatlantic Trade and InvestmentPartnership (TTIP), concerns are mounting among civil society groups over the implications for public healthcare.
The TTIP is an ambitious free trade agreement which seeks to squeeze a profit out of every aspect of the way we live by ‘harmonising’ regulations, removing ‘non-tariff barriers’ to trade and throwing public utilities and services open to unprecedented and unrestricted competition from transnational corporations (1). The European Commission’s High Level Working Group (HLWG) openly states “The goal of negotiations should be to enhance business opportunities through substantially improved …
What is TTIP exactly, and what's it for? Interview with the World Development Movement
You may have heard of a proposed trade deal called TTIP (generally pronounced tee-tip). You may also be aware of an awful lot of protest against it. Do you know what it is, and why there is so much opposition to it? We interviewed Guy Taylor of the World Development Movement (WDM) to find out more.
What is it exactly?
It’s the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership – a trade agreement being negotiated now between the US and the EU. It’s not concerned with traditonal facets of trade like tariffs – there’s very little interruption to trade at the …