First negotiated in Brussels in 2013, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a bilateral agreement between the United States and the European Union, which will encourage commercial transactions between the two blocs through a free-trade zone. The removal of tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers is supposed to make these exchanges easier. But although the negotiations started three years ago, the decision about TTIP is far from being taken. There is a gap between multinational companies' interests and citizens' opinion as well as environmental protection and below is an overview of the main debates.
Lack of information
It is better to know what an agreement contains before signing it. But nobody is really aware of what the TTIP includes: neither politicians, journalists nor citizens can tell what is in it. It is negotiated by experts, cut off from the public sphere. Only in May 2016 did we discover the existence of this agreement thanks to Greenpeace's leak.
After the 13th negotiation in July 2016, we learned that the TTIP will
contain 30 chapters and that the European Union suggested ten new proposals
regarding the agreement. The objectives remain the same - harmonisation of
standards, competition and investment policies and access to markets - but the
two blocs still do not agree. At the end of numerous negotiations consumers still do not have that
much information.
Investor-state dispute settlement: A loss of sovereignty for states
If the TTIP is signed, a new kind of "justice" will be set up, namely arbitration courts. Composed of three lawyers - who won't have the same role
in every case, by the way, those tribunals will allow companies to sue states
and won't take place in traditional courts. They will act as a supranational
entity away from democracy!In 2004, the American company Cargill made Mexico pay 66 million euros. Why? Because Mexico created a levy on sodas to fight obesity. But the American firm did not care, all they could see in this new levy was a decrease in soda consumption, so they sued the state of Mexico.
These are facts: states can only not lose, but they cannot win while multinational companies receive damages.
Protected Designation of Origin products endangered
The notion of “terroir” is in danger. Americans do not even
have a word for it! With the harmonisation of standards, the
European market, and especially the French one, will lose something which is
really near and dear to its heart: the Protected Designation of Origin
products. If the TTIP is signed, wine could be exported to the United States without being special anymore. According to American regulations, there is nothing more common than adding flavor enhancer or food colouring to products to “improve” them. No problem in adding bubbles, sugar, or whatever in wine then.
Environmental impact and danger for people's health
The signature of this free-trade agreement would mean the harmonisation of standards, which implies a new way of living and consuming. We would then share our standards and some of which are forbidden in France such as the use of genetically modified organisms, or regulated, for instance some pesticides. If products such as chlorinated chicken or hormone-treated beef enter the European market, they would be cheaper and people who do not have enough money to buy products from farmers will buy American products as they are cheaper. They will risk their own health to save a couple of euros.
Not only is people’s health endangered, but so is the environment. The standardisation of regulations would also mean the use of techniques such as hydraulic fracture. How does it work? It consists in putting into the soil water and chemicals to extract shale gas after the rock fractures. The mix of water and shale gas is then pumped out, water is separated from shale gas and gas is put in a pipeline until its delivery place. To sum up, a lot of environmental damage only to have shale gas.
The TTIP will only allow multinational companies to have more and more power, endangering small firms, the environment and every people who is living on this Planet.
Floriane C.
Hi Floriane! Your article provides a wealth of relevant and detailed information, I really enjoyed reading it! I agree with you when you say that it is really hard to find any information about this trade. Since the media do not address this topic, very few people are aware of it although negotiations started three years ago.
ReplyDeleteIf I have understood correctly, you think that only multinational companies will benefit from this agreement and citizens will have to bear the consequences. So this agreement cannot be a win win game for both citizens and multinational companies?
Do you think there is any chance that citizens can do something to stop the negotiations?
Sofia G.
Hi Sofia! Thank you for your nice comment!
DeleteWell, multinational companies will benefit from this free-trade agreement for sure, but it can also be an advantage for other actors. For instance, the rear lamps of a car do not have the same colour in Europe or in the United-States. The standards harmonisation will make it easier for car manufacturers as only one colour will be chosen. But for most of the citizens this won't be a good thing, as well as for small companies and the environment.
I know there are a lot of manifestations in many countries to stop the negotiations. But honestly, I do not know if this will change the mind of people deciding for this agreement to be signed or not.
Floriane C.
Hello Floriane! I did not hear anything about this agreement until 1 month. I think it is scandalous! Populations have to be aware of the negotiations and give their opinion. There are a lot of issues as you said and we should be able to take part of the decision. Do you know who are the experts debating ?
ReplyDeleteAngélique.G
Hi Angélique! To be honest, the first time I've heard about this agreement was on September. I knew previously what it was roughly speaking, but not that much since the media do not address this issue.
DeleteThe experts debating are part of the DG Trade of the European Commission (Directorate General for Trade), which is led by the chief negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero. The Amercian side is defended by Dan Mullaney, the United-States Trade for the Middle East and Europe deputy representative. They are the two main experts but there are others such as lawyers and negotiators.
Floriane C.
Hi Floriane! Thank you so much for giving us such an informative article of TTIP. I came to know this agreement recently from a presentation of my classmates and before that i had never heard of it. So i do agree with you its lack of information for the public and that's why your article is precious to us. Your mentionned the potentiel influences of this agreement mainly from the perspective of view of French people, so have you also got some information of American people's attitudes towards this agreement? Are they rather for or against it?
ReplyDeleteHi Bei!
ReplyDeleteThank you for having read my article. I am glad you enjoyed it! To answer your question, most of the American citizens were for the TTIP in 2015, but they are against it since this year. Although their will for free-trade is increasing(especially with Germany), they do not trust the TTIP mainly due to a lack of information.The protectionist presidential candidate Donald Trump is against this agreement, while Hilary Clinton has a mixed opinion about this topic.
Floriane C.