TTIP is about to die, but here are the toxic trade deals about to take its place

TTIP is about to die, but here are the toxic trade deals about to take its place

“TTIP has failed, but nobody wants to admit it.” With those words one of the biggest advocates of the US-EU trade deal known as TTIP (the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership) appears to have signed its death warrant this week.

Germany’s Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel was joined two days later by fellow social-democrat Matthias Fekl, France’s trade minister, who went further, saying “France is demanding the pure, simple and definitive halt of these negotiations." 


It seems that the anti-TTIP movement is close to winning its big prize – the death of a ‘trade’ deal which had more to do with extending the power of big corporations than exchanging goods. For a trade deal which had barely been heard of by most European politicians two and a half years ago, that’s quite a feat.

But what lies behind this apparent conversion of leading German and French social democrats? Elections in France and Germany are approaching in 2017. The wholesale conversion of the European centre-left to the big business ‘free market’ agenda in the 1990s, means there often seems to be little difference between conservatives and social democrats. Gabriel and Fekl are both in election mode already, but their new-found opposition to TTIP is purely tactical.

Corbyn: Labour would veto TTIP

They have calculated that a tactical retreat on TTIP might just be enough to save TTIP’s sister agreements, namely the Comprehensive Economic & Trade Agreement (CETA), a deal between Canada and the EU, and the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) a massive, super-privatisation deal covering everything from finance to education.

In other words, TTIP has been sacrificed to save the wider agenda of which TTIP was only one part. Add to that the free market fantasies of our own trade minister Liam Fox, and campaigners should enjoy a celebratory drink, but not put their placards away yet.

Our next target must be CETA – a deal which has received far less attention than TTIP, largely because Canada seems like a pleasant enough country which doesn’t threaten European standards. But the whole point of these agreements is to change our society, and CETA is just as dangerous in this regard as TTIP.

CETA would allow Canadian multinationals to sue European governments in special courts for imposing ‘unfair’ regulations on them – as well as the thousands of US multinationals with a base in Canada. Like TTIP, it’s all about deregulation, threatening everything from public services to financial control. The European Parliament will likely vote on this deal before next Spring, and governments including our own want to implement it immediately afterwards, rather than wait for a vote in Westminster.

Neither is Brexit going to save us. Boris Johnson is on record as saying he thinks CETA is the very model of a good trade deal.

Then there’s TISA – a deal between 50 countries which aims at the liberalisation of ‘services’. Services, in trade parlance, is anything you can’t drop on your foot – finance and insurance, telecommunications, transport, energy services, education and healthcare. That is what Britain specialises in, we are told, and therefore our government is bound to opt-in to TISA as soon as we exit the EU.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ttip-ceta-tisa-trade-deals-brexit-laim-fox-about-to-take-its-place-a7218281.html

Well TTIP was rotten. Don't supposed they'll replace it with anything better.

EVEN BACK IN the USA, there has been rising opposition against both the "Trans_Atlantic.." and "Trans_Pacific.." trade agreements over this past year,  by a range of small-and-medium sized-business groups, trade unions and community groups --  as their members have been discovering how the process had been instigated and controlled by big corporations, solely to give big business more power and influence, while stripping rights and protections away from individual workers, local communities, foreign governments and small companies...        

That's why I wasn't sure why Obama thought this is a good idea to shove down our throats.
It's a greedy idea for greedy people.

eddie wrote:That's why I wasn't sure why Obama thought this is a good idea to shove down our throats.
It's a greedy idea for greedy people.

GROAN ... because we're still at the point of human history where we have to appease people who want shit like this.

We won't be able to slit their throats until they trust us.

Fucking long game, people, we have to play it in order to win!

The powerful can still bully us. We have to trick them.

Govt are our servants... they don't have the right to give away control over our country to anyone else... especially not corporations.