Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

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http://vimeo.com/88146142

NO FRACKING WAY |
How the EU-US trade deal risks expanding fracking in Europe and the US |
news release

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8:24 am ET Oct 7, 2014
Environment


TTIP Could Weaken Chemical Rules, Environmental Groups Say

http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2014/1...al-groups-say/

Karel de Gucht
Trade
TTIP
United States

By Matthew Dalton



The main goal of a sweeping free-trade deal between the U.S. and the European Union, known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, is to chip away at regulations that limit trade. In some areas, such as auto-safety regulation, much can potentially be done since the U.S. and the EU have equally stringent rules for automobile safety standards.

But in areas such as chemical regulation, negotiators from both sides have acknowledged that big differences between the U.S. and EU systems will make it much tougher to get rid of regulatory trade barriers. Instead, negotiators want to adopt similar chemical-testing procedures and coordinate regulatory activities where possible, according to a leaked briefing paper written by the European Commission for EU member states. Those measures at first glance don’t seem to change the fundamental dynamic that the EU’s system for regulating chemicals, known as REACH, is much tougher than the U.S. system.

But even these goals have aroused the anger of environmental groups, showing the depth of opposition that TTIP must overcome.

The briefing paper outlines a potential chemical-sector agreement. The EU and the U.S. will cooperate on prioritizing chemicals assessed by regulators and assessment methodologies. They will harmonize their classification and labeling of chemicals.

The two sides will exchange information on their regulatory plans and consult with other side before moving ahead. The deal would create a “chemicals working group” to coordinate these activities.

This may sound harmless. But environmental groups worry the chemical industry will use these procedures to delay or block new restrictions or bans on chemicals that pose a threat to people or the environment. The stakes are large, particularly in Europe: In the coming years, the bloc will be implementing REACH, which calls for the EU to evaluate thousands of chemicals on the market and decide which ones should be restricted or banned. Some U.S. states, led by California, have adopted tougher rules, while federal legislation in the U.S. remains relatively toothless.

“The chemical industry has long benefited from a strategy of delaying any potential regulation of a chemical, or even an assessment of a substance as hazardous, for as long as possible, sometimes for a decade or more,” according to an analysis of the note written by environmental groups including the Center for International Environmental Law and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Karel De Gucht, the EU’s trade commissioner, responded in a letter saying, as he has ad nauseam over the past year, that the U.S. – EU trade deal won’t lower the levels of environmental protection of either side. “It would be a mistake to presuppose that any regulatory cooperation with the U.S. can only have a negative impact on EU regulation and standards of protection,” Mr. De Gucht wrote.

The TTIP negotiations still have a long way to go. But such concerns are already dampening enthusiasm for TTIP in the European Parliament, which must approve the final version, and in Germany.

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Car Wars: The Environmental Cost of TTIP

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mart...b_5992732.html


Posted: 16/10/2014 10:39 BST



E.U. officials are keen to let us know that most of the benefits of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership - the vast and controversial trade deal currently in negotiation - will come from reducing "non-tariff trade barriers", known as NTBs.
At present, many European and American factories produce different versions of their products for the two different markets, because each has its own set of manufacturing standards. Harmonising these standards will make them more efficient, the argument goes, allowing them to produce more with less.

It is not difficult to see how this works. It must take less time, effort and material to produce 100 identical widgets, that 50 each of two different sorts. If that's where the matter stopped there would be little objection.

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Updated Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) - IP Chapter (second publication)

Today, Thursday 16 October 2014, WikiLeaks released a second updated version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the world's largest economic trade agreement that will, if it comes into force, encompass more than 40 per cent of the world's GDP. The IP Chapter covers topics from pharmaceuticals, patent registrations and copyright issues to digital rights. Experts say it will affect freedom of information, civil liberties and access to medicines globally. The WikiLeaks release comes ahead of a Chief Negotiators' meeting in Canberra on 19 October 2014, which is followed by what is meant to be a decisive Ministerial meeting in Sydney on 25–27 October.

Despite the wide-ranging effects on the global population, the TPP is currently being negotiated in total secrecy by 12 countries. Few people, even within the negotiating countries' governments, have access to the full text of the draft agreement and the public, who it will affect most, none at all. Large corporations, however, are able to see portions of the text, generating a powerful lobby to effect changes on behalf of these groups and bringing developing country members reduced force, while the public at large gets no say. Read the full press release here

https://www.wikileaks.org/tpp-ip2/

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Open Europe ‏@OpenEurope
#Juncker on ISDS: I won't accept that jurisdiction of courts be limited by special regimes for investor-state dispute settlement.#TTIP

David Martin MEP ‏@davidmartinmep
“@TTIPBeware: .@JunckerEU clarifies #ISDS "there will be no ISDS clause in #TTIP if timmerfrans does not agree."Bizarre passing of the buck

Lenaic Vaudin ‏@LenaicVaudin
@JunckerEU still not clear on #ISDS. Says doesn't want special regimes to limit jurisdction of EU courts. But doesn't say no to #ISDS either

Marietje Schaake ‏@MarietjeSchaake
#Juncker will leave the question on #ISDS in #TTIP to #Timmermans and underlines he wont accept limiting jurisdiction national courts

Bas Eickhout ‏@BasEickhout
What a nice gesture of @JunckerEU: he gives hot potato ISDS in trade negotiations to the socialists 'it will only come if Timmermans agrees'

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commondenom
http://www.independentlabour.org.uk/...e-trade-deals/


commondenom


Originally Posted by b0g View Post

At present, many European and American factories produce different versions of their products for the two different markets, because each has its own set of manufacturing standards. Harmonising these standards will make them more efficient, the argument goes, allowing them to produce more with less.

that's all well and fine but which way would the manufacturers be forced to go??

we all know that the USA puts profit before ANYTHING else which is why the food out there is so poor. It's also why 'made in america' is a joke...no-one wants to have cooking pots that are going to poison you or medicine that will give you cancer...european standards are much stricter and aimed at actually protecting consumers as opposed to making as many sales (and thus tax) as possible...

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the lobbies of the big brands and tbtf banks want to force the norms and standards their way - less is more
it's about them getting bigger while forcing the smaller out of bizz.
=> less diversity and monoculture , which might explain why US food is "so poor".

the relation you try to lay bt higher European standards and less sales (where?) is in my opinion rooted in ideology. Please don't get angry about this view.

European standards are much more about worker safety, environment protection, protection of lower and middle class, ...

But the fundamental thing here is worse: less than 10% of the elected members of EU parlement have access to the nego. papers and meetings.

And to this that the new commission president Juncker has been building for 20 years the Luxemburg tax(less) heaven as Lux. minister. A joke.

Suppose the ISDS gets approved: so in a few years my comp. can sue the US government bcs the FED reserve is of has been keeping interest rates art. low so debasing the $ vs € and my comp wants redemption for that, for future and past losses.

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House of Commons: 11th report on TTIP
and an internal note for the M E P's

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Majority in @EP_Environment voted today 14/4/15 to approve strong language opposing #ISDS in #TTIP! Will @EP_Trade listen?

Maybe this report about environment and food issues has helped.

http://ttip2015.eu/blog-detail/blog/...VI%20Food.html

extract:

TTIP and sustainable food production: water and fire?

Highlights from the "Food and Farming" conference a timely reminder of the issues at stake in the ENVI committee TTIP vote.
Bart Staes, MEP Greens/EFA Rapporteur, TTIP Opinion, ENVI Committee


The long-negotiated and disputed free trade agreement (TTIP) between the EU and US could have deep impacts on how we produce our food. Even if there are not many policy areas that have a more direct impact on people and the planet, this was one of the issues that were largely left out in the TTIP-debate. That is why the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament organised (together with a broad range of organisations: ARC2020, Compassion in World Farming, Corporate Europe Observatory, Eurocoop, European Coordination Via Campesina, European Milk Board, Friends of the Earth Europe and Slowfood.) a conference and debate entitled “TTIP talks – What’s Cooking? – Perspectives on Food and Farming” on 10 December 2014. The Greens/EFA have now published the report that summarises the presentations and discussions of this conference.

This publication coincides with a crucial phase in the European Parliament where several committees will vote on their assessment of TTIP. These reports will be taken on board by the Trade committee which is in the lead for preparing parliament's first ever opinion on TTIP, which will most likely be voted in plenary in May.

One of the more important votes for food and health related issues is the vote in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) which takes place on April 14th. As the rapporteur for the ENVI opinion, I must secure a number of compromises with the support of other political groups, that do not compromise on democratically achieved regulations concerning food safety and public health.

In order to be able to find a compromise and safeguard our shared criticisms, we must walk on a thin rope during negotiations.

Some key compromises that the ENVI report calls for:

• Clear safeguards of our policies, principles and procedures, also specifically with regard to regulatory cooperation.

• Exclusion of five areas from the negotiations (public health services, GMOS, use of hormones in the bovine sector, chemical legislation REACH and its implementation, and cloning.

• A list of measures which we consider fundamental that must not be compromised.

• A list of measures where we call for cooperation, with a view to upward harmonisation.

• Opposition to arbitration ISDS.

• A further increase of transparency in line with recommendations by the European Ombudsman.

The report published today shows that a clear and critical stance from parliament is no luxury. It shows that is was high time to consider and discuss the main challenges and future perspectives on TTIP and its foreseeable impact on food and farming. Given the fact that the main objective of the EU – US trade deal is to remove non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to trade between the Europe and the US, this might affect producers and consumers of both sides of the Atlantic. In layman’s terms these NTBs are areas standards relating to food safety, environmental and consumer protection and public health. Therefore the TTIP project is not a traditional trade deal, because tariffs between the two trading blocks are very low on average in most sectors.


continues at http://ttip2015.eu/blog-detail/blog/...VI%20Food.html

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UN calls for suspension of TTIP talks over fears of human rights abuses

UN lawyer says tactics used by multinationals in courts outside of public jurisdiction would undermine democracy and law
The proposed trade deal between the European Union and the United States would make the blocs the biggest free-trade area in the world.


Phillip Inman Economics correspondent

Monday 4 May 2015 17.45 BST
Last modified on Monday 4 May 2015 17.48 BST

source: http://www.theguardian.com/global/20...multinationals

A senior UN official has called for controversial trade talks between the EU and the US to be suspended over fears that a mooted system of secret courts used by major corporations would undermine human rights.

Alfred de Zayas, a UN human rights campaigner, said there should be a moratorium on negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP), which are on course to turn the EU and US blocs into the largest free-trade area in the world.

Speaking to the Guardian, the Cuban-born US lawyer warned that the lesson from other trade agreements around the world was that major corporations had succeeded in blocking government policies with the support of secret arbitration tribunals that operate outside the jurisdiction of domestic courts.

He said he would becompiling a report on the tactics used by multinationals to illustrate the flaws in current plans for the TTIP.

De Zayas said: “We don’t want a dystopian future in which corporations and not democratically elected governments call the shots. We don’t want an international order akin to post-democracy or post-law.”

The intervention by de Zayas comes amid intense scrutiny in the US, Europe and Japan of groundbreaking trade deals promoted by Barack Obama. The European commission, which supports the talks, believes an agreement to lower tariffs and establish basic health and safety standards will boost trade and add billions of euros to the EU’s income. UK ministers estimate Britain could benefit from a rise in GDP of between £4bn and £10bn a year.

Under the proposed agreement, companies will be allowed to appeal against regulations or legislation that depress profits, and there are fears multinationals could stop governments reversing privatisations of parts of the health service, for instance.

The investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) scheme that includes the secret tribunals is already a cornerstone of a trade deal between the EU and Canada and is scheduled to be included in the TTIP deal, as well as a trans-Pacific deal being negotiated between the US and Japan.

EU officials said the ISDS would be part of the package when it is put to a vote in the EU parliament later this year. .

Cecilia Malmström, EU trade commissioner, has sought to dampen criticism by publishing discussion documents submitted to the TTIP talks. Amid growing calls from environmental groups, unions and MEPs for the deal to be scrapped, she has also put forward a series of suggestions to “safeguard the rights of governments to regulate” and protect public service provision from demands for competition. More than 97% of respondents to an official EU survey voted against the deal.

However De Zayas, the UN’s special rapporteur on promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, said that while these were helpful initiatives, the adoption of a separate legal system for the benefit of multinational corporations was a threat to basic human rights.

“The bottom line is that these agreements must be revised, modified or terminated,” he said.

“Most worrisome are the ISDS arbitrations, which constitute an attempt to escape the jurisdiction of national courts and bypass the obligation of all states to ensure that all legal cases are tried before independent tribunals that are public, transparent, accountable and appealable.

“Article 103 of the UN charter on human rights says that if there is a conflict between the provisions of the charter and any other treaty, it is the charter that prevails.”

De Zayas, who issued a statement last month demanding unions, health experts and environmentalists be included in the TTIP talks, conceded that the UN has had little impact on the debate so far, but hoped the publication of his report in August ahead of the EU parliament vote could alert policymakers to the flaws in the current plan.

Swedish energy giant Vattenfall is suing the German government for phasing out nuclear energy


Disputes have already cost governments hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation. The Swedish nuclear energy group Vattenfall is suing the German government following its decision to phase out nuclear energy following the Fukushima disaster, while the French waste and energy group Veolia sued the Egyptian government after it raised the minimum wage.

“There have been more than 600 such cases and most of them have been decided in favour of the corporations,” he said. “Why? Because the arbitrators are highly paid corporate lawyers, today working for the corporation, tomorrow as advocates, day after tomorrow as lobbyist, the day after that as arbitrators.
“These are classical situations of conflict of interest and lack of independence.”