Business groups are slavering at the prospect of a new US-European Union trade deal. A survey of over 1,000 members of the Institute of Directors found “90 per cent said they support the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) currently being negotiated between the EU and US.”

IoD head of Europe and Trade Policy, Allie Renison, said: “An agreement which would create the world’s largest free trade area would be a massive boost to the UK economy and support much-needed growth across the rest of Europe.”

But free trade deals have form. While companies relish the prospect of fewer and weaker rules, workplace, public health and environmental advocates know from experience this equates to the removal at the stroke of a pen of potentially lifesaving legal protections hard won over decades.

On 4 February 2015, protesters from across Europe took to the streets of Brussels to highlight what they believe is a threat to workplace and public health standards, consumer rights and animal welfare protections. Their warning came as negotiators from both sides of the Atlantic met in the city to work on what its opponents described as the ‘Trojan Horse Treaty’.

Leaked documents and independent analysis have shown that reassurances that free trade will provide a job creating, business-boosting, cash generating and risk-free windfall is at best deluded thinking, at worst a potentially deadly lie.

Protest organisers Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) and Global Justice Now are among over 160 organisations, including European trade union bodies and the Hazards Campaign, that have signed a statement against what they believe is a corporate “power grab”. They say “regulatory cooperation” measures to create more compatible rules between the EU and the US on chemicals, food, public services, workplace health and safety, and financial regulation are code for a cull of the better, more protective laws.

One of the key legal provisions in TTIP’s crosshairs would be Europe’s chemical regulation REACH. The US equivalent, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), is much weaker. The inevitable logic of free trade rules is that protection costs, so the weaker US rules would set a new, lower benchmark.

Guy Taylor, trade campaigner with Global Justice Now, said: “TTIP has rapidly become the most controversial and unpopular measure that the European Commission has ever attempted to introduce.” He added: “It has become clear that these talks are only going ahead on the mandate of the tiny corporate elite that would benefit enormously from privatising public services and scrapping vital environmental and labour protections.”

POOR TRADE “Well over a million people across Europe have signed a petition calling for TTIP, the world’s biggest ever free trade deal, to be scrapped, and the Commission’s own public consultation returned record numbers of an overwhelmingly negative verdict on the trade deal,” said Global Justice Now’s Guy Taylor. But it is popular with business, and business has the ear of those making the rules.

REGULATORY CON  The business lobby wants a Regulatory Cooperation Body so any laws it claims interfere with free trade can be headed off at the earliest stage.  The European Commission seems keen to oblige and says it wants “compatibility” between laws on both sides of the Atlantic and a “pro-competitive regulatory environment.”

UNSETTLING The trade deal’s dispute settlement processes would be run entirely by corporate lawyers and would, according to Global Justice Now, mean “corporations have a new way of imposing their will.” It adds:  “Safety regulations, workers’ rights, environmental protection rules and food standards regulations are all threatened by TTIP. All of these can and are seen by corporate interests as barriers to trade and profits.”

DIRTY BUSINESS  The European Commission says any new public interest standards developed after TTIP would have to be “trade and investment” proof. A statement from over 160 union, human rights and environmental organisations opposing TTIP warns this approach “gives unprecedented influence to business lobby groups to stop any new regulation that would impact on trade and investment… The Commission seems to have largely conceded to the demand of business lobby groups to essentially co-write legislation.”

CHEMICAL DISASTER  Lowest common denominator, a January 2015 report from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), concluded that “regulatory cooperation” would delay or stop stronger protections from chemicals and pesticides, and remove incentives to firms to develop safer alternatives.

GOING DOWN A 2014 report from the European Parliament on the potential impact of the EU-US trade deal on agriculture and rural development noted: “If regulatory convergence were to level the playing field, there would be a risk of downward harmonisation… this could lead to major changes in EU legislation, which may undermine the traditional EU precaution and risk management policy on which the current regulatory framework is based.”

Back to top

No deal

Free trade deals have form. While companies relish the prospect of fewer and weaker rules, workplace, public health and environmental advocates know from experience this equates to the removal at the stroke of a pen of potentially lifesaving legal protections hard won over decades. They say the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) currently being negotiated between the EU and US, amounts to a massive corporate “power grab”.

Hazards webpages
Working world • Deadly business

Images
Click on images for larger versions