Scramble to Conclude Suspicious EU-US Trade Deal

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by Stuart Littlewood / January 26th, 2015

UK industry is in intensive care. Should we throw open the door and allow America’s big business battalions to muscle in under cover of a trade treaty?

Critics claim that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) currently being cooked up between the EU and the United States could:

Weaken workers’ rights and put millions of jobs at risk;
Reduce environmental protection and food safety regulation;
Lead to more privatisation of public services like education and our prized National Health Service (NHS);
Give new powers for corporations to sue European governments, including the UK, in secret courts.
They complain that world leaders are working alongside major corporations at breakneck speed to get this deal sewn up, and refuse to give details.

An especially prickly issue is the imposition of investor-to-state dispute settlement rules (ISDS) enabling foreign investors to sue the host government.

Full article: http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/01/scramble-to-conclude-suspicious-eu-us-trade-deal/

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No ISDS challenge has ever succeeded against the UK, says the Government. “Despite the large number of treaties in force with ISDS clauses, there have been only two ISDS challenges brought against us.” But Canada’s experience is quite different. Ottawa has been sued for billions of dollars after ISDS gave multinational corporations too much power while restricting the fundamental role of democratic governments to regulate on behalf of public safety, the environment, health and other priorities. Having already lost or settled six claims and paid out damages totalling more than $170 million, Canada still faces nine ISDS actions that allege government measures interfere with the expected profitability of foreign investments. These include a ban on fracking in Quebec; a moratorium on offshore wind projects in Lake Ontario and the decision to block a controversial mega-quarry in Nova Scotia.

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