TTIP trade deal could re-launched under a different name, say EU ministers

European Union ministers today admitted that a giant EU-US trade deal is dead in its current form, with drastic change needed to salvage any hope of a deal going ahead.

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Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership has sparked a widespread backlash and now lies in tatters in the wake of massive protests across the continent.

Austrian Economy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner said that the pact now has, “such negative connotations”, that the best hope was to “completely relaunch with a new name after the US elections.

TTIP has failed but here are the trade deals about to take its place

Mitterlehner also demanded “more transparency and clearer objectives.“ Negotiations for the free-trade zone have so far been held behind closed doors.

Slovak economy minister Peter Ziga, was similarly pessimistic, saying that a “new start or some new approach [was] needed, while EU trade commissioner “ Cecilia Malmstroem said the likelihood of a deal was “becoming smaller and smaller”, as she entered the talks.

Several EU representatives blamed US intransigence for the gridlock. The deal now has “only a small chance of success unless the United States starts to give a bit of ground,“ Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said.

The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP

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The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP

1/6 The NHS

Public services, especially the NHS, are in the firing line. One of the main aims of TTIP is to open up Europe’s public health, education and water services to US companies. This could essentially mean the privatisation of the NHS. The European Commission has claimed that public services will be kept out of TTIP. However, according to the Huffington Post, the UK Trade Minister Lord Livingston has admitted that talks about the NHS were still on the table

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2/6 Food and environmental safety

TTIP’s ‘regulatory convergence’ agenda will seek to bring EU standards on food safety and the environment closer to those of the US. But US regulations are much less strict, with 70 per cent of all processed foods sold in US supermarkets now containing genetically modified ingredients. By contrast, the EU allows virtually no GM foods. The US also has far laxer restrictions on the use of pesticides. It also uses growth hormones in its beef which are restricted in Europe due to links to cancer. US farmers have tried to have these restrictions lifted repeatedly in the past through the World Trade Organisation and it is likely that they will use TTIP to do so again

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3/6 Banking regulations

TTIP cuts both ways. The UK, under the influence of the all-powerful City of London, is thought to be seeking a loosening of US banking regulations. America’s financial rules are tougher than ours. They were put into place after the financial crisis to directly curb the powers of bankers and avoid a similar crisis happening again. TTIP, it is feared, will remove those restrictions, effectively handing all those powers back to the bankers

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4/6 Privacy

Remember ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)? It was thrown out by a massive majority in the European Parliament in 2012 after a huge public backlash against what was rightly seen as an attack on individual privacy where internet service providers would be required to monitor people’s online activity. Well, it’s feared that TTIP could be bringing back ACTA’s central elements, proving that if the democratic approach doesn’t work, there’s always the back door. An easing of data privacy laws and a restriction of public access to pharmaceutical companies’ clinical trials are also thought to be on the cards

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5/6 Jobs

The EU has admitted that TTIP will probably cause unemployment as jobs switch to the US, where labour standards and trade union rights are lower. It has even advised EU members to draw on European support funds to compensate for the expected unemployment. Examples from other similar bi-lateral trade agreements around the world support the case for job losses. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the US, Canada and Mexico caused the loss of one million US jobs over 12 years, instead of the hundreds of thousands of extra that were promised

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6/6 Democracy

TTIP’s biggest threat to society is its inherent assault on democracy. One of the main aims of TTIP is the introduction of Investor-State Dispute Settlements (ISDS), which allow companies to sue governments if those governments’ policies cause a loss of profits. In effect it means unelected transnational corporations can dictate the policies of democratically elected governments

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“The Americans have not been willing to make offers the way Canada has so it's guaranteed there will be no agreement this year,” said German Economy Minister and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, adding that if talks could be rekindled under a new US president, they would need a “different attitude”.

In August Gabriel said that TTIP had failed “but no one is really admitting it”.

On the other side of the Atlantic, analysts see little chance of a deal any time soon. “Very unlikely,” Caroline Freund, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said. “Europe is struggling with Brexit and migration, and the TTIP is hugely unpopular in Germany.”

After three years of secretive talks, seemingly intractable differences remain over issues such as working conditions and agricultural practices. For example, Europe bans washing chicken with chlorine and routinely treating cows with growth-promoting hormones, practices which are common in the US.

Detractors also say the pact will erode wages and working conditions, as well as give corporations the power to sue nation states for introducing regulations that harm their businesses.

Under a similar trade deal the government of Ecuador was ordered to pay German oil company Occidental $2.3 billion for, apparently legally, terminating a contract.

On Saturday, more than 300,000 people protested against TTIP, while on Tuesday thousands demonstrated outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels.

Guy Taylor, trade campaigner with Global Justice Now said “the death of TTIP is a victory for the ordinary people across Europe who stood alongside trade unions, civil society groups, activists and consumer watchdogs to prevent this massive corporate power grab."