A timely TTIP off


EU and American officials will spend this week in Brussels trying to make progress negotiating the controversial trade deal. TTIP aims to stimulate commerce by reducing barriers such as tariffs and differences in regulation, but critics say the agenda is driven by international business and will be bad for European and American citizens.

The talks were launched a little over a year ago at a G8 summit. The UK Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Obama and top EU officials set the ball rolling at the summit at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland – at that time, Mr Cameron said there was no more powerful way to drive economic growth and prosperity than by boosting trade. “We should be clear about what these numbers could really mean: two million extra jobs, more choice and lower prices in our shops. We’re talking about what could be the biggest bilateral trade deal in history; a deal that will have a greater impact than all the other trade deals on the table put together,” he said.

On the same occasion President Obama commented: “If we can look beyond the narrow concerns to stay focused on the big picture – the economic and strategic importance of this partnership – I’m hopeful we can achieve the kind of high-standard, comprehensive agreement that the global trading system is looking to us to develop.”

However many campaigners fear that TTIP could actually impede trade, making it more expensive for businesses to export if they have to comply with an extra layer of rules and regulations. Furthermore the agreement is expected to incorporate a mechanism known as investor-state dispute settlement which allows investors to take governments to international tribunals to seek compensation if they think those rules have been broken. As George Monbiot pointed out in the Guardian: “Where this has been forced into other trade agreements, it has allowed big corporations to sue governments before secretive arbitration panels composed of corporate lawyers, which bypass domestic courts and override the will of parliaments.”

Not much of this may be appreciated by ordinary voters. EU trade officials will today start analysing responses to a public consultation on 'investment protection and ISDS in TTIP'. The survey closed on July 13, almost four months after its launch in March. European citizens and interest groups replied in large numbers, the Commission claims: it will soon confirm the number of responses received, classifying them by class of respondent and country of origin. It says it will look at the responses carefully over the next few months, before publishing a report on the results towards the end of 2014 and drawing up policy recommendations based on them.