TTIP
is quickly turning out to be one of the burning issues in European
politics for 2015, it is at the top of the agenda of the European
Commission and some governments of EU countries. The Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership refers to a series of secretive
trade negotiations being carried out between the EU and the US, if
successful, this deal would possible create the biggest trading block
in the world, potentially liberalising one-third of the global trade
and, if one believe in the defenders of this deal, would create
millions of jobs, would boost the economy, provide better public
services and stronger regulation and would help secure Europe's place
for the future. It all sounds a win-win situation to everybody and
the EU commission has been working hard to transmit this idea.
The
new EU trade commissioner, Cecilia Maelmestrom, considers this trade
deal between Europe and the USA as an unmissable opportunity for the
European Economy that Europe cannot afford to miss, and her opinion
is shared by the usual suspects, many trade associations and
neo-liberal organizations and centre right governments. This is the
only thing I agree with the trade commissioner regarding a possible
transatlantic trade deal, it is indeed a great opportunity for Europe
and for the Europeans but not in the current form, the current
proposal
being negotiated presents a massive threat to the European social
model and European society while failing to deliver any tangible
benefits to the average EU citizens. These negotiations, currently in
the 8th
round have gained a unexpected notoriety, particularly in the social
media, rarely seen in a trade deal, but this is no ordinary trade
deal, that notoriety comes from the size and the remit of the
negotiations, the TTIP dwarfs the European Union in size and in the
remit and the potential reach of this deal is anyone's guess.
Anyone
would be excuse to think that if we are talking about international
trade, the discussion would be around the removal of tariffs but
these are already relatively low between the EU and the US, the
complete removal of these barriers would have a negligible effect in
the trade between the EU and the USA, instead, the bulk of the
discussion is around the removal of 'non-tariff barriers to trade'
(NTB's), these are our regulations and standards, our consumer
protection laws, our environmental laws, our labour rights, social
standards and public service , our financial market regulations. Most
of the mentions that anyone hear are about unfair car imports
requirements and how some companies have to pay 20% import tax when
they export to the USA and vice versa, no mention to the affect this
deal would have in other aspects of our life, how it would affect our
labour rights, our health services, the protection of our
environment. In reality it will subordinate our generally higher
European standards to to lower US standards. The Commission keeps
saying that the EU will never abdicate of our standards to get a deal
but fails to explains how will they manage to achieve such outcome.
Defenders
of TTIP keep talking about the “tremendous benefits of the right
deal” without really going into details of what such deal would
entail, great part of the commission argument about the potential
benefits of TTIP are based in a study made by the CEPR, an
organisation with strong ties to corporations and finance. This study
claims loudly that the EU economy could gain an extra 95 billion
pounds or 545 euros for each family among other things but generally
fails to mention the same study admits that such gains would only be
felt in 2027, according to this study, this gains represents an
additional growth of 0,5% over this period of time, this is less than
0.05% gain per year on average. These “potential” gains are the
result of the most ambitious scenario of this study which includes
the eliminations of 25% of NTB's related costs and the full
elimination of tariffs. This study include many other economic finds
of dubious origin, used to exhaustion by all the defenders of this
deal. Other studies claim the creation of thousand and thousands of
new job throughout the EU but these claims are questioned by many
economic experts, in their content, their assumptions, their motifs
and their results.
A
recent study
presents a completely different set of result by simply using a
different economic model, instead of the growth promised by the
European Commission and several governments, this study actually
predicts that TTIP would actually lead to net losses in terms of net
exports over a decade, net losses in terms of GDP, loss of labour
income and would lead to hundred of thousand of job losses throughout
Europe.
Another
issue constantly raised in the TTIP negotiations has been
transparency, or the lack of it, in the beginning of the
negotiations. the precise text of the negotiations was kept secret
and even after being leaked, it took the decision of the EU ombudsman
to force the EU commission to actually take steps towards
transparency and finally to start publishing TTIP texts, further
interventions continue to question the slow attitude of the
commission in continue towards more transparency, MEP's have to sign
secrecy agreements to consult the texts,
locked away in a restricted reading room in the European Parliament
and faced with
threats of espionage charges if they try to make copies or share the
details with the public.
So much for transparency.
The
growing demand for more transparency on these negotiations have lead
to an significant increase to popular opposition, this certainly
should be a sign to our European and National leaders that the
European People and the European civil society do not want TTIP in
it's current form. Still the Commission and other EU governments
continue to press ahead with the negotiations, ignoring the voices of
the civil society. More that one million people signed the petition
launched by Stop-TTIP against the TTIP, which was already dismissed
by the EU Commission, on the grounds that such petition cannot be
considered a European Citizens Initiative. The ISDS consultation
resulted in a clear refusal of this undemocratic mechanism, 97% of
the respondents rejected the ISDS but still the Commission ignores
the voice of the people that claims to represent and refuses to take
ISDS of the table with vague promises of reform.
A
leaked position paper of the Commission suggests that all new laws
and regulations should be reviewed according to their contribution
to more trade, this review would be done by the “regulatory
cooperation council”, this is jargon to lobbyist consultation
before any legislation is enacted, in reality. The agenda as been
captured by corporations, just to have an idea, according with
documents consulted by the Corporate Europe observatory, 93% of
preparatory meetings were with business groups. These are the groups
that stand to win more of this deal, TTIP is a deal negotiated and
tailored to serve the economic interests of only a few.
One
of the most contentious points and the one that that is raising ever
more serious concerns in civil society is the ISDS, this mechanism
will allow corporation that can afford it, the possibility to bypass
national courts and use highly secretive privatised courts to sue
national states for everything they feel entitled to in the pursuit
of profits. ISDS has been a constant of trade deals since the middle
of the 20th century, they have contributed to the
undermining of the right to by states to regulate and decide in the
best interest of their citizens. Ultimately,
the notion that any corporation can have the right to seek financial
compensation from a nation, because a democratically elected
government is fulfilling their duty of care towards the well being of
their citizens is ludicrous and immoral. Both EU and
the USA have sufficiently independent legal systems to address any
legal matter between any company and the government. ISDS is just a
mechanism to protect companies profits no matter what.
I
agree that TTIP is an incredible opportunity for Europe, it has the
potential to increase and reinvigorate the influence of Europe in
the international stage or finally buried it by being eclipsed under
USA neo-liberalist influence, Europe and the Europeans have reason to
be proud in our European Social Model, in our labour protection laws,
in the standards of our care, in our standards and the respect for
liberty and should seek not only to nurture and uphold these values
but show them proudly to the world as an example of fair society. Our
governments and the EU commission seems bent in undermine these
values to promote a deal that will not serve the interests of our
society. The great safeguard for Europe is the requirement for this
deal to be approved by the European Parliament and the national
parliaments, there is the last shred of democracy in an otherwise
opaque negotiation.
One
of the biggest problems to our modern day society is the rise of
inequality, Oxfam just revealed that nearly 50% of the world wealth
is in the hands of just 1% of the population, and this figure is set
to rise. Put it this way, in a world were the biggest threat to
society is the rise of inequality and the threat of deflation, in
what way does trade liberalization helps? There is always the
arguments that our exports would increase, but so would our imports,
therefore in this case it is all about a shift of figures in the
international balance of trade without really offering any real
gains, so in this case TTIP will not offer anything tangible to
tackle these issues.
Remember
that Europe and the world is been through the worst economic crisis
since the great depression, this crisis, which affected most of us,
was caused by the greed of neo-liberalism and the increased
deregulation that ultimately lead to a crisis that cause increased
inequality and poverty in the developed world, the loss of purchase
power and quality of life, the erosion of the social state and the
imposition of austerity throughout Europe without regards for the
social cost that such measures would have in our youth, in our
elderly, in our lives. The question with the TTIP is: Do we really
want more of the same suffering that we all have been experiencing
over the last few years? This deal has the potential to slowly erode
the gains of our democracies, cause thousands of jobs losses,
The
way in which the opponents to this deal are portrayed as a somehow
bunch of faceless agitators and ill-informed scaremongers that dare
to question the “infinite wisdom” and the motifs of the
negotiators of such deal is quite insultuous to the fair concerns of
millions of people. The defenders of this deal, starting with the
commission, that seems bent in imposing this deal at any cost, even
when all the outcomes they keep repeating have been refuted over and
over and unmasked as not much more than creative economics, and
proponents of this deal go to the point of saying there aren't
disadvantages on TTIP, in an 'bury your head under the sand'
attitude'. To many concern keep being raised by individuals,
academia, NGO's and civil institutions to being mentioned in just one
article. And the attitude of the EU commission seems to continuously
ignore these concerns. The EU commissions keeps repeating it has a
clear mandate from from the EU governments to proceed with these
negotiations but I would like to remember the EU commission that it
must represent the interests of the citizens of the European Union.
One
of the biggest unknowns about this deal in top of everything else is
not so much the immediate effects of the TTIP but the long term
damages to our society an the future generations, once signed, this
deal will become extremely difficult to alter. The EU commission is
playing a very disturbing game, in a time where the confidence in the
EU is falling and the distance between the EU institutions and the
citizens seems to be growing, their perseverance in ignoring the
growing number of voices in the European civil society against
austerity and the TTIP just had to the potential risk of the EU self
destruction. If the TTIP needs to exist, then negotiators of such
deal such seek a fair deal, a deal that put citizens, society and
environment at the centre. The starting point for such deal already
exists, it is call the Alternative
Trade Mandate, which most of the European probably have never
heard about. You might not agree with the content of this article but I only want to
raise the attention to the other side of the TTIP, the side the
mainstream media and the European institutions keep ignoring, do your
research, see what is at stake, participate and make your voice
heard.
#noTTIP
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