A recent report by the Austrian Foundation for Development Research has critically assessed many of the claims about the supposed benefits of TTIP, finding them to be flawed, unrealistic and ideologically biased. Here we speak with the foundation’s director, Werner Raza. Most of the impact assessments on TTIP commissioned by the various European member states and by the […]
This article was originally published on December 11, 2014 on openDemocracy. By Liz Murray The EU/US Trade Deal poses a threat to Scottish Water’s plans to deprivatise failing PFI facilities. Last week, a Europe-wide petition against TTIP, the controversial and aggressively neo-liberal free trade deal between the US and EU, reached 1 million signatures. More than 180,000 of […]
By Walden Bello and Thomas Fazi In parallel to the EU-US trade deal currently under way, the US is negotiating a similar agreement with 11 countries of the Asia Pacific: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Walden Bello, leading critic of neoliberal and corporate globalisation, identifies the global strategy underpinning the two agreements. Interview.
Referred to as “an assault on democracy,” the counterpart to TPP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) positions the EU and the US to have their sovereignty and citizen’s democratic rights trampled. George Monbiot, in an article published in The Guardian (12-3-2013) discusses how TTIP includes a toxic mechanism called the investor-state dispute settlement. […]
Charles Hankla, Georgia State University It seems that the world has become unsafe for trade agreements. In particular, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a major new trade deal among the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations, has become a political lightning rod for both the left and the right. As if to highlight that […]
‘What Europe needs more than ever to avoid a slide into a xenophobic, deflationary, 1930s-like abyss’ By Nadia Prupis, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-24-2016 In the tumultuous aftermath of the UK’s vote to leave the EU, the European left is responding with a mix of reason, measured reassurances, and righteous defiance. Left Unity, […]
‘This report indicates the TPP will produce almost no benefits, but inflict real harm on so many workers.’ By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-19-2016 The government’s own assessment of the toxic Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) shows that the controversial trade deal will produce negligible economic benefits while damaging most Americans’ jobs […]
It appears that the Obama administration wants to leave the world with a lasting legacy of multinational corporate hegemony by blackmailing the EU into corporate subservience — all the while undermining state sovereignty through secretive supranational trade pacts. Written by Jay Syrmopoulos. Published by Free Thought Project on 5-4-16. (Washington, D.C.) – In a stunning […]
‘This sustainable development proposal is anything but sustainable.’—Ilana Solomon, Sierra Club By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 10-23-2015 A leaked of draft of negotiating text from a pending EU-U.S. trade deal shows that the bloc is ready to empower corporate polluters while going back on its promise to uphold environmental protections, groups on […]
Observers have pointed out that ‘cars form a big part of the EU’s case for TTIP’ Written by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 9-24-15. For fear of sabotaging the corporate-friendly TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the U.S. and European Union, the car industry buried a report showing major discrepancies between the safety […]