STOP
TTIP South Lakes
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STOP
TTIP South Lakes
Our banner at the Birdcage, Kendal, during an event there
TTIP
– Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (EU-US)
CETA – Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (EU-Canada)
Jump to LOCAL EVENTS
What is TTIP? And CETA?
And why should they be stopped?
TTIP is a pro-corporate deal being negotiated behind closed doors
between the EU and the US which will give foreign and transnational
corporations hard-to-reverse
legal powers above nation-states, and will make the
privatisation of our NHS irreversible (and likewise our public
services), will straightjacket
our ability to regulate on climate change and our environment,
will mean a further loss
of our democracy to transnational capital,
increased inequality and much more besides.
Deregulation
is central to TTIP - especially those regulations that protect us and
our environment, but not those that protect big corporations. CETA
is similar but with Canada, and at a more advanced stage towards
ratification. We have to stop these and open them up to public and
democratic scrutiny. Regulations protecting our food, health and safety,
climate and other vital needs are
already being affected by TTIP and CETA.
Beware - TTIP is being "sold" to us as being good for growth and
prosperity, and even for jobs, despite the EU-commissioned study by
big-bank-funded CEPR (London) admitting TTIP will result in job losses,
and its growth predictions are at best very small. A recent
report from Tufts University is damning against these predicted
"benefits", and WDM's Director Nick Dearden summarizes the Tufts
findings with the "advice":
'For
lower wages, higher inequality and more austerity – vote TTIP'. And War
on Want here refutes Vince Cable's letter to MPs trying to
"reassure" them with "a wilful misrepresentation of the truth" about
TTIP.
Page 1 of our
leaflet gives a summary
explanation of TTIP and CETA by Brian Woodward: www.bit.ly/TTIPleaflet
(a 2-page pdf). << Please read!
Page 2 helps you have your say - with
links to easy actions. Do print and distribute this leaflet to friends,
neighbours, relations...
Also: '10
Reasons To Be Concerned About TTIP' (a 1-page pdf providing
a simplified summary. Source: #noTTIP Times newspaper by WDM et al.)
George Monbiot on TTIP: 'The
British government is leading a gunpowder plot against democracy'
- 4nov14 in The Guardian.
And there's another even more secret agreement started by the USA for
corporate benefit - the Trade
in Services Agreement - TiSA.
NB: as soon as
you've read enough to convince you to take action - do jump or scroll to
the ACTIONS by YOU section (or p.2 of
leaflet) - where we have quick and easy actions you can take as well as
more powerful ones you can move on to doing: (red is often used here as a colour-code for
actions you can take)
CONTENTS
of this web-page:
After sections summarizing
our group, and the 2 most
dangerous features of TTIP: the ISDS and
the REGULATORY COOPERATION BODY,
there are sections on the following subjects which can be jumped
to from here: | CONTACT
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by YOU |
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& EVENTS | PHOTOS
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Councils |
Our
group - STOP TTIP South
Lakes
Our group is campaigning to have TTIP
and CETA stopped so that full public and democratic scrutiny can take
place for them to be "fixed" or "scrapped". By "fixed" we mean removal
of all the dangerous text and insertion of necessary text for the
sustainable long-term benefit of all of us, our environment and
wildlife. The worst of the text requiring removal is the ISDS
- the Investor-to-State Dispute
Settlement text, but that's by no means all that needs to be
removed or amended. Pia Eberhardt of Corporate Europe Observatory said
that so much of it is bad that if the bad text is removed there would be
little left worth saving!
Towards achieving these aims, in collaboration with other groups and
NGOs, we are trying to: 1.
increase public awareness, and 2. enable
action.
So far we’ve done this largely by
leafleting – including our own leaflet, and also by frequent
stall-displays in Kendal town centre and elsewhere (photos below),
with poster display, leaflets, petitions, and good people helping
out with aims 1 and 2.
The STOP
TTIP South Lakes group was formed on 27th August in the
first meeting of people who responded to the 38 Degrees web-forum for
our Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency (MP Tim Farron), and then
combined with South Lakes WDM and anyone in our area wanting to stop
TTIP and CETA, and to try and get the ISDS removed. Though a recently
formed group, several of our members have been studying and campaigning
on "free trade agreements" (FTAs) for a number of years (TTIP and CETA
are FTAs).
We need local action against TTIP. One reason of many is that TTIP will
affect local democracy, local government (e.g. threat to "buy local"
procurement), local food sovereignty etc. Nick Dearden (WDM Director)
explains this in the Independent: 'We're
already pouring £9bn of NHS money into big business - and TTIP will
make it worse' (25nov14).
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The ISDS and "ISDS-lite"
The ISDS Investor-to-State
Dispute Settlement text is the worst part of TTIP and CETA and
is thus well worth understanding:
It gives powers to foreign and transnational companies to sue
governments using their own pro-corporate tribunal system (so avoiding
our courts and democratic accountability), if any new policy or
regulations might affect their future profits - even those designed to
protect us. The ISDS tribunal system gives legal primacy to "free trade"
principles and profits over and above matters of vital importance
to people and environment, such as the need to protect our environment,
climate, health and safety, human rights, employment rights and our
democracy.
The ICS-ISDS: Due to the huge public rejection of the
ISDS, including the slightly amended ISDS in CETA, EU's Trade
Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom brought out an "improved" version of an
isds for the TTIP in September 2015 which she re-named the ICS
or Investment Court System. But beware, the ICS is not in reality a replacement
for the ISDS as it is claimed to be, but is a different version of ISDS,
because it retains the intrinsic central flaws of other versions of
ISDS. It is based on the "ISDS-lite" voted for by the European
Parliament of MEPs in summer 2015: The "ISDS-lite"
is a nickname given to compromise proposals by certain MEPs for a
separate "court" system more amenable to less-decided MEPs, which
attempts to reduce some of the peripheral bad aspects of the standard
ISDS but retains its central inherent dangers. It has been widely
rejected for the latter reason. Pro-TTIP MEPs are ignoring the fact that
the public do not want any separate
court system for foreign companies and TNCs, whether called ISDS or
re-badged with a different name. The Tim Farron
section below links to my
emails to Tim on the "ISDS-lite" (linked to directly here). My
criticisms to Tim on the "ISDS-lite" also apply to the similar ICS. I
have collated articles on the ICS-ISDS via these links:
16sep15:
EU
Commission announces its proposals for a “replacement” for ISDS -
re-badged as ICS – Investment Court System. Links to responses (pdf)
or short-url: www.bit.ly/ISDS-ICS
or EU-Commission-proposal-for-ICS-&-responses.pdf
(< those are 3 links to the same pdf collation of references with
links).
Updates from October
2015 onwards (pdf)
2014: The template letter I provide in resource 3 below explains more
fully what the ISDS is, and its impacts, and my
briefing to Tim Farron for a response from Vince Cable and his
Department BIS (resource 6),
lists many of its worst points that need addressing by government.
George Monbiot has written several punchy articles on it (readable via
the USEFUL LINKS section below). Useful pdf by
Public Citizen: 'Case
Studies: Investor-State Attacks on Public Interest Policies'.
If you want yet more detail and references on the ISDS (and other
aspects of TTIP and CETA) there is a section
on the ISDS in my large resource web-page on "free-trade
agreements". On both that web-page and the present one below, there is
an excellent 5 minute
video on the ISDS using fracking as an example, which is very
relevant to us here: scroll down until you see blue text 'NO
FRACKING WAY' on a small picture of a fracking rig on a green
field.
More recently on BBC Radio 4 (and available on iplayer): A thorough 28
minute assessment by Michael Robinson of the ISDS, aiming to answer if
it's the threat to democracy that we campaigners reckon it to be: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05ntj7p
Brian Woodward recommends you listen to Robinson and Cecilia Malmstrom
on the option she provides for exclusion of health and environment (25
minutes through)
Even The Economist has
published an article against ISDS: 'Investor-state
dispute settlement: The arbitration game' "Governments are
souring on treaties to protect foreign investors" 11oct14 The Economist.
ISDS in CETA:
This explains why we must remove the ISDS from CETA too, before it is
ratified or implemented: (NB: an undemocratic EU process allows
implementation of ISDS to precede ratification of a "trade treaty" by
member states!). 'US
multinationals could sue EU governments through CETA' - EurActiv,
20nov14.
Refers to 'Analysis
finds EU-Canada trade deal would unleash wave of investor lawsuits'
18nov14, Transport & Environment, and 'CETA:
Trading away democracy' - Corporate Europe Observatory. Also: 'Tens
of Thousands of U.S. Firms Would Obtain New Powers to Launch
Investor-State Attacks against European Policies via CETA and TTIP'
(pdf by PublicCitizen USA). Nick Dearden (WDM Director) on ISDS and
CETA: 'New
trade agreements will TTIP us into powerlessness' -- New
Internationalist, nov14. My tweet:
A more challenging read: an
analysis of the ISDS in CETA from leaked CETA text and Canadian
examples of misuse of ISDS: Canadian
corporations abuse investment treaties, bully governments into
environmental backtrack.
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REGULATORY
COOPERATION such as by
a Regulatory Cooperation Council or body
This is proposed for TTIP and is a
threat to democracy of magnitude similar to having an ISDS or
"ISDS-lite" in TTIP or CETA. It would be a joint EU-US body or
process for vetting regulations, both existing and new (at proposal
stage), with a central part being an "impact assessment" as to
whether regulations are "burdensome" to business profits, and
including a business influence via representations from
"stakeholders" such as TNC's. It would "institutionalize" business
lobbying at a supranational level thus distancing regulatory
decisions even further from democratic influence. The thought of
having fossil fuel companies such as Chevron having increased
influence on proposals for regulating carbon emissions or fracking
is horrific. Even if such stakeholder influences were constrained
(unlikely), such a US-EU body or set of processes would considerably
slow and dilute new regulations to be acceptable to both sides, and
be more democratically remote than at present. This illustrated
short pdf explains: 'TTIP:
a box of tricks for corporate climate criminals', and this is
GJN's take: Regulatory
cooperation in TTIP: A blueprint for corporate domination? -
Global Justice Now, October 2015.
And do try this punch piece by Glyn Moody: You
thought ISDS was bad? TTIP’s “regulatory cooperation” is even
worse in Ars Technica, 19jan16.
Collation of references with links: RegulatoryCooperation-refs-links.pdf
CONTACT
Our email address:
stop.ttip.slakes@gmail.com
Do join us and help us! Url managed by Dave Plumb.
In 2014 I recommended local people also
join the 38 Degrees Westmorland and
Lonsdale constituency web-forum via: http://ttipaction.38degrees.org.uk - which led to the formation
of our STOP TTIP South Lakes group.
But this forum has been relatively inactive in 2015.
Our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/StopTTIPSouthLakes
This web-page and Facebook page are being managed by Henry Adams for the
group. Members' suggestions are welcome.
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Our resources include:
1. STOP
TTIP South Lakes leaflet - largely written by Kendal’s Brian
Woodward: www.bit.ly/TTIPleaflet
Please download this pdf, and print and distribute it. Brian has also
written a leaflet on TTIP's threat to the NHS (link in NHS section
below).
2. Petition to Tim
Farron MP to urge for removal of ISDS: www.bit.ly/ISDSpetitionTimFarron
Aim: to get > 1K signatures.
NB: At the end of 2014 we had
gained over 700 signatures in
Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency, mostly in Kendal - this is very
useful data to remind Tim Farron of the views of his constituents.
Competition: who
will collect the most signatures?
(excluding sigs collected during group events)
Networking with nearby constituencies:
Petition to any
MP to urge for removal of ISDS: www.bit.ly/ISDSpetitionMP
- I started this for Rory Stewart – thank you Alan (Penrith) for taking
this one on from me. If you want more sheets download here.
3. Template letter
system to help you email your MP your concerns re ISDS:
www.bit.ly/FTAemailMP
Best amended to personalize for more impact.
5. CLIMATE
CHANGE: Document on Impact of TTIP, CETA and ISDS on
climate change: www.bit.ly/TTIP-CETA-Climate
- document version of a poster display shown at SGR conference (SGR =
Scientists for Global Responsibility) in 2014. A more recent modified
version of this was published on the Parliamentary Environment Audit
Commission (EAC)'s website as part of written evidence on the impact of
TTIP on the environment HERE (as html) and as a pdf. FoE's submission HERE
(as html page) and HERE
(as pdf) covers not just climate change but also other
environmental impacts. Note: since I wrote my submission, 2 bits of good
news mean I must write updates here: 1. the FQD (Fuel Quality Directive
to limit c-emissions from transport) may
continue post-2020 (Barroso's agreement to end it appears to
have been over-ruled under the new Commission's period of office) and 2.
Chevron has withdrawn from its push for fracking in several European
countries (at least for now). This
link is to Dept BIS's response on 24th July 2015 to the EAC
report. Europe's Greens: "CETA
killed off the FQD" (to put simply: climate legislation traded
away as a bargaining chip for the CETA deal to increase transnational
business profits).
Very
useful briefing pdf's on some of the main impacts of TTIP and CETA on
climate change:
This
link to Corporate Europe Observatory's climate-TTIP/CETA briefings
is very useful. Or you can access some of them and others here:
1.
How the proposed Regulatory
Cooperation body would "institutionalize" lobbying influence by
fossil fuel companies on climate regulations (new and existing), with
the possibility of providing them power to (re-)write regulations to
their benefit: 'TTIP: A box of tricks for corporate
climate criminals'.
2.
How a separate corporate court
system for foreign and transnational companies (ISDS/ICS)
will give increased power to fossil fuel companies to challenge
climate policies: 'Polluters' Paradise'.
3. Crucially, the status quo is for
"free trade" principles to have international legal
primacy over climate action. A "Brussels leak" prior to COP21
shows that the EU Commission want to maintain that order of primacy: 'Trade trumps climate'.
Tim Farron in a 2015 pre-election hustings agreed that this status quo
should be reversed, showing he had understood this message we've been
putting across repeatedly in surgery meetings and correspondence.
However, since then, there is no sign yet that this principle has been
addressed by LibDem policy, and ALDE voted for the transatlantic
liberalization of trade in the most carbon-intensive of fossil fuels,
which is likely to be part of the proposed "Energy chapter" in TTIP
(note: not 'Energy and climate change', or vice-versa - which would be
better). We need to urge Tim to set "red lines" on this, to insist
that climate action is given legal primacy over trade (and investment)
by legally robust text, and that this is reflected in a Climate and
energy chapter (The proposed chapter for sustainable development and
the environment is toothless).
4. Overview
by GJN (Global Justice Now): Five reasons that TTIP and CETA are
terrible for the climate: 1 is re 3 above (primacy
trade v climate), 2 is re 2 above (ISDS), 3 is re 1 above (Regulatory
Cooperation), 4 is re high-carbon agriculture, 5 is re 'freeing up'
fossil fuels, from e.g. the Fuel Quality Directive (by disregarding
differences in carbon intensities of fossil fuels that the FQD tried
to give weight to).
6. Briefing to Tim
Farron MP on TTIP, CETA, ISDS: www.bit.ly/FTAbriefTimFarron
- now with Dept. BIS for responses to specific points, especially on the
ISDS. Also on impacts on climate change. I've now at
last got a response letter - but from Trade Minister Lord Livingston
(I'll post that here when I can). Unfortunately it does not adequately
address my specific numbered points on the ISDS nor the impacts on
climate change.
Dept. BIS actually published online
one of our photos and tweets showing our event in Kendal on the recent
Europe-wide TTIP day of action in a
Storify they did online – to my astonishment. Our group is now
being noticed on a national scale! And by the government
department we are trying to influence! (thanks to social media
such as twitter and Storify. Please join twitter - a powerful
campaigning tool)
We now also want to encourage letter-writing to our MEPs and to
encourage “satellite” initiatives in other towns in our constituency
beyond Kendal.
I'll add help here for doing that.
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ACTIONS
you can take:
Page 2 of our leaflet
has a good list of actions: www.bit.ly/TTIPleaflet These
may be more up-to-date:
ACTION:
Please sign this
act.wemove.eu petition: Governments
should not be sued for protecting citizens Petition
text: "Say no to corporations having the right to sue states in
special courts, whether they are called "ISDS" or "ICS". Please make
sure that this is not part of the TTIP and CETA agreements with the
US and Canada or any other European trade treaty; not now, nor
ever." This petition started in Autumn 2015.
ACTION:
(posted October 2015) Please email your MEPs against CETA and its
ISDS: here's a useful template system by GJN to help make this easy:
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/stopCETA
ACTION:
Please sign the 'Self-organised
EUROPEAN CITIZENS' INITIATIVE
(ECI) against TTIP and CETA' Sign the ECI! Stop TTIP
This petition has now reached over 2 million signatures! If the EU
Commission disregard this now - they will be emphasizing their disregard
for democracy even more. This group is taking legal action against the
EU Commission for disallowing the application for an official
ECI and for giving reasons that had inadequate legal substance.
ACTION:
TTIP and CETA will liberalize trade and extraction of the worst fossil
fuels, so increasing climate change.
FoE makes it easy to urge your MEPs against this:
https://www.foe.co.uk/act/who-wouldnt-reject-toxic-trade-deal
Priority ACTION:
Please write to your MEPs: 38
Degrees provide you help to do this
Priority ACTION:
Please write to your MP: Tim Farron's url is tim@timfarron.co.uk
- do copy and paste into your emailer. For other constituency MPs, try www.writetothem.com
which finds his/her url for you etc. Your email will have more impact if
it's in your own words. However, if you want to use a template (which
you can modify) here is one which focuses on removal of the worst part
of TTIP and CETA - the ISDS: www.bit.ly/FTAemailMP
ACTION: Also ask your MP to make sure the
NHS is taken out of TTIP: http://action.peoplesnhs.org/nhs-in-ttip
ACTION: [This 38 Degrees forum seems to have
become redundant, so join our group instead: Please sign up to 38
Degrees Westmorland & Lonsdale constituency forum for people
against TTIP (leafleting etc): http://ttipaction.38degrees.org.uk #NoTTIP ]
And do join our group: email the STOP TTIP South Lakes group
which was set up as a result of this 38 Degrees facility, if you want
to be on our emailing list: stop.ttip.slakes@gmail.com
Westmorland
& Lonsdale constituency: Our first meeting was on Wednesday
27th August at 7.45pm in The Brewery Arts Centre (Vats Bar),
Kendal, where we started 'STOP TTIP
South Lakes' group and organized leafleting and events.
Subsequent meeting elsewhere as the BAC was not quiet enough.
LEAFLETING
ACTION: Please read, download, print and
distribute this pdf
leaflet by 'STOP TTIP South Lakes'. It briefly
summarizes TTIP and actions you can do. Please deliver to
neighbouring houses along your street, to friends, relations...
The full url for the leaflet is: www.dragonfly1.plus.com/StopTTIPleafletBWHA.pdf
COMPETITION: Collect signatures:
Tim Farron still supports TTIP/CETA and the ISDS despite the
evidence for how dangerous the ISDS is for example (in existing
agreements similar to TTIP). We now have a competition to see who
can collect the most signatures to go to Tim to help remove the
ISDS: please download from item2 above in the 'other resources'
section, print and give it a go!
Be pleased if you collect 10 signatures, and very pleased if you
collect 20+ Try friends and relations,
social groups, meetings etc you attend, and also don't be afraid to
knock on your neighbours' doors (those who understand what you are
doing can praise you for both drawing it to their attention and
giving them a chance to do something about it). TIPS: first let them
know you live on their street or nearby. A "hook": Most people
will dislike privatisation of the NHS: TTIP will provide
hard-to-reverse international law that both backs up the opening up
of the NHS to privatisation that the recent 2012 "Health" Act
promotes, as well as acting as a ratchet - with the ISDS making
privatisation irreversible. Yet Tim Farron still supports the ISDS!
If we get a large number of signatures Tim Farron will find that
hard to ignore.
And:
Juncker - the new President of the EU Commission after Barroso, has been
recently wavering over whether the ISDS should be removed from TTIP.
Here's help for you from 38 Degrees to write to him to urge
him to remove it: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/speakout/email-junker
This
action is probably over now that the election is due soon: ACTION: Please
sign 38 Degrees petition: 'Vince
Cable: Fix or scrap TTIP'
This
section is to help you have your say against the "Free Trade
Agreement" type of trade legislation such as the TTIP and CETA,
especially to help you push for removal of the most dangerous text,
the worst being the Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement clause
(ISDS). It is also essential to urge MPs, MEPs and our government to
STOP the TTIP and CETA so that it can be opened up to full scrutiny
immediately and its pro-corporate anti-people text removed, and
replaced with a reassessment of how trade and investment should be
carried out in a manner fitting all of our future needs in a
resource-limited world with a changing climate.
See
- www.noTTIP.org.uk
Please help our actions. This
submission to the SLACCtt newsletter prior to the creation of the
STOP TTIP South Lakes group summarizes the actions and how you can
help: www.bit.ly/StopTTIPactionSouthLakes
(or try this
link to same).
Please
help by leafleting:
Leaflet
by Dr
Brian Woodward, Kendal, briefly summarizing
TTIP and action you can do. It's a leaflet pdf I hope you
will read, download, print and distribute (e.g. through
letterboxes).
You could also help
collect signatures for our petition to Tim Farron to urge
Vince Cable for removal of the ISDS:
Download copy of petition sheet for Tim Farron: PETITIONtoTimFarron-removeISDS.pdf
Then after collecting signatures, give sheet to me
(Henry Adams) - see contact tel.no. at end of leaflet
01539 722158
Constituencies other than Westmorland and
Lonsdale: (if you want to copy
what STOP TTIP South Lakes is doing in W&L in green text
above)
Download copy of petition sheet for any MP: PETITIONtoMP-removeISDS.pdf
A shortened
web-address for the present site is www.bit.ly/STOP-TTIP-South-Lakes
or www.bit.ly/STOP-TTIP-South-Lakes
This is useful if you want to make it easier for people to type
in a web address from a paper leaflet, or to type it in to a
tweet as a link. Also it gives feedback to me of the number of
times the link has been used.
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PHOTOS
Us at the Birdcage on
24sep14:
(also there e.g. October
30th (Thursday) and in November)
And here on the Europe-wide Day of
Action against TTIP, with some unexpected help:
Remarkably, a cropped version of this
photo above was included by government Department of BIS in one
of its Storify collations
(scroll down in the BIS Storify until you recognize the right half of
photo there). Remarkable - as someone in BIS is noticing that a lot of
us disagree with its Secretary of State Vince Cable's propaganda.
A close-up of our display on a
table-top in its indoor form: here at a Quaker meeting on TTIP:
The reports hanging
to left and right are items 5 and 6 in the resources section above.
I'll
add pdf's of the text on these posters so you can read it - and print
it for your own display if you so wish (feel free to copy what we do!)
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NEWS
and LOCAL EVENTS
- focusing on local news as
there is too much European news to be fully collatable here (except for
a selection of the most important news - scroll down to read it).
Also
see our
Facebook page - especially
for local events: www.facebook.com/StopTTIPSouthLakes
NB:
Facebook is much more suited to updating with local events
^^^^
LOCAL
NEWS
LOCAL EVENTS
LOCAL
EVENTS LOCAL
EVENTS LOCAL
EVENTS LOCAL EVENTS
Provisionally
30th January 2016 (Saturday) or
a Saturday in February: (as posted on our Facebook page)
Happy New Year!
In follow-up to Paris COP21 and the flooding, we are trying to organize
an event in Kendal to make the public aware of the links between the
flooding and climate change, and the influence of fossil fuel companies
on these and COP21 and TTIP/CETA.
It will be a joint
GJN-SL - SLACCtt - STOP TTIP SL event.
Saturday 30th January at
The Birdcage is a provisional date for this.I write "provisional" because
the Birdcage is unavailable on our preferred date in January, but
because key persons are unavailable on the 30th we may have to shift it
to February. So the date may be changed. The final date will be posted
here and elsewhere such as on our website, GJN-SL's Fb page, and on a
page already created on the SLACCtt website here:http://slacc.org.uk/event/public-awareness-campaign-linking-ttip-with-climate-change-and-flooding/
Nearer
the time I'll post further info, including evidence-based arguments for
the connections between flooding ..... and TTIP/CETA.
10th October
2015 (Saturday) event in Kendal: CETA and
its ISDS need to be stopped! (as well as TTIP)
PHOTOs
and a write-up of what happened, such as at the petition hand-over to Tim
Farron, are posted on our Facebook page here.
Starts at 9:30am (setting-up soon after 9am), and ends around 3pm. Do
come!
Our base will be a display-stall in
front of the cenotaph between Stricklandgate and Kendal market square. You
are welcome to help for any length of time, or just call in to sign our
petitions. We hope people from a number of groups including
GJN-SouthLakes, 38 Degrees, SLACCtt, War on Want and others, will come
along and help.
We
have several linked actions (the most important being 3. - which I should
have numbered as 1.), including:
1. Increasing public awareness
of:
(i) the dangers of having a separate
court system (such as the ISDS) for the privilege of transnational
corporations, and using the threat from fracking companies as one of the
examples,
(ii) that the EU-Canada investment
agreement CETA is nearing ratification, with a full ISDS still in place,
and having been allowed negligible democratic input or adequate scrutiny
by elected representatives.
2. Collecting more signatures to the
petition to Tim Farron against having any separate corporate court
systems: Let’s get the signatures up from the current 750 to over 1K!
3.
38 Degrees supporters will be assembling by 9:30am at the display-stall in
front of the cenotaph, getting organised, then at 9:40am walking to Tim
Farron’s office nearby to hand over copies of the Stop TTIP ECI
petition (which has now exceeded 3 million names Europe-wide!). Tim Farron
has agreed to meet us at his office at 9:45am (in preference to at his
surgery at 10am - 11am). http://organise.38degrees.org.uk/areas/1347
4.
Hope to collect signatures also for the FoE petition against Barclays
financing Third Energy’s fracking proposals for Ryedale.
We hope to repeat this event on
later date(s), or at least actions 1 and 2.
BACK
TO TOP of page
Saturday
10oct15 10am-3pm event in Kendal for the international day of
action against TTIP, CETA, TiSA, TPP:
Cumbria County Council Highways have
given us permission to set up a stall (as long as it isn't too large) in
front of the cenotaph next to Kendal Market place on Saturday 10th October
(10am-3pm) (Birdcage unavailable as booked by another group).
I suggest we focus there on raising public
awareness about the dangers of separate courts for TNC's and CETA, as
well as TTIP, because CETA is almost ready for ratification with the
dangerous full
ISDS still in place. I suggest we focus on increasing signatures to
our petition to Tim Farron against separate courts from its present
750+ to over 1K - which will then be a big enough figure for the media
to take notice when we hand it in. See our
Facebook page STOP TTIP South Lakes for further info.
Saturday 22aug15 38 Degrees TTIP day of action -
This is nationwide - and we have an event at the Birdcage in the
centre of Kendal: supporters of Global Justice Now South Lakes, 38
Degrees and STOP TTIP South Lakes (which was started by 38 Degrees
supporters) have got together to further increase public awareness and
collect more petition signatures. As in 2014. I great success - over
300 signatures collected in Kendal today for input via 38 Degrees to
the ECI Stop TTIP petition.
Saturday 18apr15 'Global Day
of Action' against TTIP, CETA, TiSA, TPP: We will have an
event in the centre of Kendal today, but not the usual display-stall
at the Birdcage, but a more mobile and lower key event
leafleting and petitioning 10:30am onwards (until 1pm, or longer if
anyone wishes). Do come and help us! We will be starting at the
Birdcage at 10:30am but you could join us later if you wish -
we shouldn't be far from there. SLDC decided we are not allowed to set up
our display this time during the pre-election "purdah" period so we'll be
less easy to spot. We will provide leaflets, petition sheets, and small
'stop ttip' flags you could attach to rucksacks or whatever. Better still
- bring your own banner if you wish. Unfortunately this event couldn't
take place due to a co-incidence of several constraints.
Almost local (Manchester): Saturday
21mar15 War
on Want's Annual Conference 'TTIP BUILDING THE FIGHTBACK' 1pm - 6pm. At least one member of
our group is going to this from Kendal.
*****
Friday 13th February - John Hilary - Director of War on Want gave a talk on TTIP at
Kendal Town Hall as part of an event organized by 'Forward in Europe' - local
branch of the European Movement - an open public meeting
on
"Pros and Cons of the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership
between the EU and USA".
7.30pm – 9.30pm,
with notable speakers Jacqueline Minor, UK
Office of the European Commission, to "describe TTIP"
and
with John Hilary giving a critical assessment. You may want to
read Hilary's
comprehensive assessment here beforehand.
**** 19th January
at Natterjacks, Ulverston, 8pm:
"TTIP Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership what is it ? Why it
matters and how it might effect us" Brian Woodward is giving an initial
summary at this open Ulverston Green Party debate meeting to spread
awareness and knowledge on TTIP, and to stimulate action too. See UGP Facebook
page for this event for more information e.g. location details. 34
Queen Street, LA12 7AF
**** 10th, 17th, 24th January - all Saturdays - At the
Birdcage, Kendal again. 10.00am - 2.30pm/3pm. NB: We are
lucky at long last to have bookings on Saturdays - when we are likely to
have more people passing by - those who are at work on weekdays. So please
come along and help. Helpful if you could email us but not
essential:
stop.ttip.slakes@gmail.com
10dec13 Wednesday -
STOP TTIP South Lakes at the Birdcage,
Kendal again. 10.00am - 2.30pm/3pm. Do come along and help!
3dec13 Wednesday - STOP TTIP South Lakes at the Birdcage,
Kendal again. 10.00am - 2.30pm/3pm. On this frosty sunny day we were
very pleased to collect 64 signatures to NW England MPs including 56
to Tim Farron, bringing our total to Tim Farron to over
540. Linda Youd again showed her skills at collecting
signatures. Thank you also to Dave Cope for help with dismantling at the
end. We also of course informed lots of people about TTIP who hadn't
heard about it.
26nov13 Wednesday
- STOP TTIP South Lakes at the Birdcage,
Kendal again. 10.00am - 2.30pm/3pm. We collected about 40 signatures
despite poor weather.
19nov13
Wednesday - STOP TTIP
South Lakes at the Birdcage,
Kendal again. 10.00am - 2.30pm/3pm.
12nov13
Wednesday - STOP TTIP
South Lakes at the Birdcage,
Kendal again. 10.30am - 2.30pm/3pm. Thank you to those who helped -
especially Margaret James-Barber, Linda Youd, Dave
Cope... Unfortunately heavy rain
inevitably reduced signature numbers, but we nonetheless had bonus gains
in other ways - spreading awareness to new people who were very
interested: thus promising "Networking connections" made.
5nov14 Wednesday
- STOP TTIP South Lakes at the Birdcage,
Kendal again. 10.30am - 2.30pm/3pm. This was a great success, gaining c. 89
signatures to Tim Farron, bringing the total over a 24 hour period to
100, as 11 signatures were obtained the previous evening after Mike
Berners-Lee's lecture at Ambleside, where we displayed our poster-board
on the impact of TTIP and CETA on climate change. Linda
Youd came all the way from Cark and her skills at connecting with the
public must have contributed to the majority of the signatures.
31oct14 Friday - Talk on TTIP by Linda
Kaucher of Stop TTIP uk campaign - with much expertise on TTIP
(especially re the NHS), and over 12 years on "free trade agreements" NB: see 'TTIP and the NHS' section below for links
to her articles.
Venue:
Castle Green Hotel
Organizer: Fabian Society: Dr Robert Judson: this is an open meeting and
he'd like us to come.
Time etc: At 6.30 for 7.00pm Admission is £5, which includes tea
and coffee before the meeting.
Our display and petitions will be
there! Do come along.
30oct14
Thursday - STOP TTIP South Lakes at the Birdcage,
Kendal again. 10.30am - 2.30pm/3pm. Do come along and help!
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REGIONAL
NEWS
Lancashire County Council set an excellent precedent in 2014 when it voted
for a motion against TTIP: 'County
Council Speaks Out on US-EU Free Trade Deal' and here
are the relevant minutes (scroll down there c. 60% through page
under 'Notices of Motion'). Thank you Margaret James-Barber for those very
links. We hope both Cumbria County
Council and South Lakes
District Council will take notice and even try a step
better! Since then, GJN and others have produced useful information
to help local councils become "TTIP-free zones".
EUROPEAN
NEWS
May 2016 - TTIP
leaks (by Greenpeace on 1 & 2 May) - these confirmed our
assessments that the consolidated text for TTIP would be bad for us and
our environment, but also showed it to be worse than expected. Links to
the leaked documents and assessments of them are compiled in this pdf: www.dragonfly1.plus.com/TTIPleaks-collationoflinks.pdf
NB: CETA - the EU-Canada trade
and investment agreement - may complete its "legal scrubbing" stage by the
end of 2015 and be ready for ratification in 2016 with its full ISDS still
in place. It's leaked unscrubbed text has already been thoroughly
critiqued: (but a challenging read) an
analysis of the ISDS in CETA from leaked CETA text
More on CETA: Excellent
source for CETA info – via Linda Kaucher c.sept 2015: http://www.s2bnetwork.org/issues/eus-free-trade-agreements/ceta-material/
Also: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/making-sense-ceta
16sep15: EU
Commission announces its proposals for a “replacement” for ISDS -
re-badged as ICS – Investment Court System. Links to responses (pdf)
or short-url: www.bit.ly/ISDS-ICS
8th July 2015: Today at short notice (no doubt to dodge
anti-TTIP campaigners) the
European Parliament's plenary voting for a resolution on TTIP
took place, after a delay because the
leading pro-TTIP MEPs - including the EP President Martin Schulz,
feared that the resolution might not be voted through on the
earlier programmed date (!), due to the extent of public
pressure on MEPs - especially those in the big centre-left S&D
group - to vote against a separate court system for foreign
companies and transnational corporations.
Unfortunately - partly due to anti-democratic manipulations of
process by Schulz, almost two-thirds of MEPs sided with business
lobbyists not their constituents and voted for a pro-TTIP resolution
which included a compromise separate court system nick-named
"ISDS-lite", and text promoting export of oil and gas from the US. This
pdf quotes from the resolution voted for by the EP and lists
links to relevant articles both before and after the vote. This
link is to an action page to help people contact MEPs prior to
this vote. And this
link is to a web-page I used to brief MEPs.
This
link is to a pdf relating to this plenary vote, comprising a
thread of correspondence and meetings of Henry Adams with Tim Farron MP
mainly on TTIP and climate change, also on separate court systems (ISDS
& "ISDS-lite"), with added correspondence with Catherine
Bearder MEP, and the GreenLibDems.
Catherine Bearder [SE England] is the Liberal Democrat Party’s only MEP
- and is also in the GreenLibDems. Read it to compare their views with
those of Henry Adams (that's me - managing this web-page). This pdf is
also accessible by typing www.bit.ly/TTIPclimateBearder
into your browser.
The 'Self-organised
EUROPEAN CITIZENS' INITIATIVE
(ECI) against TTIP and CETA' has reached over 2 million
signatures!
Even the BBC reported it! - 'A million sign
petition against EU-US trade talks' - BBC News 4dec14.
The aim is now to increase it above its current c.1.5 million to over 2
million.
NATIONAL
NEWS
2014/15: The Parliamentary select
committee EAC produced an assessment of the likely environmental impacts
of TTIP. One of us submitted a statement which was published on the EAC
website. FoE also submitted a statement.
2014: The Parliamentary Select Committee
on BIS (Business, Innovation and Skills) held a recent meeting on
TTIP which was attended by Polly Jones
of WDM, David Babbs of 38 Degrees etc. Dave Cope said that Polly
Jones put up a good performance, and Dave provided us the link to this
video of the several hours long meeting, which he found useful to watch
(in stages!): http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=16584
(Dave wrote: "also worth going first to the Committee’s home page to
identify members before watching the session").
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NHS
Threats
to the NHS and public services
NB:
Do read Brian
Woodward's: 'TTIP Threat to UK Health Care - THE NHS IS
BEING SOLD OFF UNDER OUR NOSES!' (pdf)
'PUBLIC SERVICES UNDER ATTACK -
TTIP, CETA, and the secretive collusion between business lobbyists and
trade negotiators' (pdf) - 12oct15 report by CEO,
WoW,
TNI, ...
TTIP unless radically changed, will
mean the ongoing privatization
of the NHS will be made irreversible, such as by acting
like a legal ratchet to the opening up of the NHS to privatisation put
into UK law by the 2012 Health and
Social Care Act, and other legal steps furthering the
"privatisation by stealth". The ISDS/ICS text will
be a major part [but not all] of that ratchet and must be removed (or as
a step towards this: at least the NHS specifically excluded from it).
TTIP if signed up to by the US and EU member states will itself be
extremely difficult to reverse or get out of. Michael Bowsher QC has
provided legal advice confirming that NHS is not protected by TTIP and
specific robust text is required within the TTIP text to exclude the NHS
[link to that further down].
Leaked text from TTIP and CETA shows
that the NHS and public services are still within the TTIP and thus
affected by it. Although the leaked text appears at first sight to show
some general protection for health services, John Hilary (Director of
War on Want) who has studied the push for "free trade" agreements for
over 20 years, writes
for 38 Degrees HERE that these "protections" are inadequate and
not quite what they seem to be at first sight. The NHS and other
public services need to be specifically
and explicitly excluded from being affected (and especially
from the ISDS/ICS), but the UK government does not want to ask for this,
even though the EU Commission has provided a section within the draft
agreement for nation states to do just that (under 'reservations') BBC
on the leaked text. This increases our suspicions of our
government, especially as they promised no top-down re-organisation of
the NHS in 2010 (the opposite to their plans). Disappointingly, Tim
Farron MP, even as LibDem leader, says that such explicit exclusion text
in TTIP is not necessary, preferring to trust hollow promises that the
NHS is safe from TTIP (did he trust the Tories promise [lie] in 2010 of
"no top-down re-organization of the NHS"?).
Kendal's Dr Brian
Woodward - a leading member of our group, especially in the
NHS and pharmacy, provides an insightful summary of NHS
privatisation and TTIP from official references: pdf of his letter.
He also wrote an excellent insightful letter published in the
Westmorland Gazette in Spring 2015 on NHS privatisation and
TTIP. I'll try and link to it as it's well worth a read. Also
in summer 2015 Brian wrote an A5 leaflet on the NHS and TTIP.
He's provided me with an A4 version which I've uploaded as a
pdf so you can read it on line: http://www.dragonfly1.plus.com/TTIP-NHS-leaflet.pdf
(as already linked to above). For an excellent summary of the
privatisation of the NHS he recommends: How
the NHS is being dismantled in 10 easy steps - written by a GP.
ACTIONS:
Please ask your MP to make sure the
NHS is taken out of TTIP: http://action.peoplesnhs.org/nhs-in-ttip
And do visit the home-page for The
People's NHS website: www.peoplesnhs.org
Scrolling down on that page you will also see a link to No
Health Sell-off at Morecambe Bay: they have a petition for their
campaign against the selloff of our hospital pharmacies. Their
Facebook page.
2016: 25feb16 The 38 Degrees action
to save NHS from TTIP refers to these recent refs (& others). I've
copied their notes too:
[1]
Leading
independent barrister and EU specialist, Michael
Bowsher QC, was commissioned by Unite to produce the advice.
His full legal opinion can be found here:
http://www.unitetheunion.org/uploaded/documents/MBTTIPAdvice20111511-25674.pdf
An article explaining the advice can be found here:
The Guardian: TTIP deal poses 'real and serious risk' to NHS, says
leading QC
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/22/ttip-deal-real-serious-risk-nhs-leading-qc
26jan16
Anger
as government blocks TTIP legal documents relating to health service
- Phillip Inman - Business - The Guardian.
'TTIP:
Transatlantic trade deal text leaked to BBC' Glenn Campbell,
26feb15, BBC News (Scotland).
TTIP will
affect the NHS (unless the TTIP is radically changed), and as Trade Minister Lord Livingston (who
has vested/conflicts of interests in TTIP) showed: the
UK government wants it to
be included in the TTIP, regardless of the "re-assurances" you may
have received from Tim Farron and the LibDems that the NHS won't be
affected. The Independent article states: "Unions, including Unite, have
demanded that the NHS be excluded from TTIP, but the Tory peer said it
should be included because Britain’s healthcare industry is a major
exporter and would benefit from more open trade." Because an agreement
for "more open trade" would have to be reciprocal, this implies NHS
would also have to be "more open". This
letter from EU Commission's Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom
shows what she's offering to Livingston/UK.
These articles also help to explain:
'NHS
boss Stevens and the TTIP 'trade' lobbyists who threaten our NHS'
Caroline Molloy 23oct14 in openDemocracy
"New NHS boss Simon Stevens ducks questions about his alleged connection
to pro-TTIP treaty lobbyists pushing to open the NHS up further to
profiteering US companies."
'On
TTIP and the NHS, they are trying to bamboozle us' John Hilary,
14jul14 openDemocracy
'The
real force behind the NHS Act - the EU US trade agreement' Linda
Kaucher 19feb13 in openDemocracy "An EU-US drive to harmonise
services - particularly health - is critical to the NHS reforms. As the
Trade Commission acknowledged, without the financial crash this would not
have been possible. Britain's 'shock' programme continues."
'The
upcoming EU-US and EU-Canada trade deals have serious implications for
the NHS' Linda Kaucher, 15may13 in openDemocracy "Contrary to
Coalition promises, the privatisation and liberalisation of the NHS,
opening the publicly- funded NHS to transnational investors, has now been
fixed in legislation. The Health and Social Care Act, and particularly its
accompanying Section 75 regulations, enforce competitive bidding for
contracts.", "... the Act and the accompanying regulations were prepared
to fit with the proposed US/EU free trade agreement which David Cameron is
promoting and furthering ...".
'The
BBC Business Unit and the public interest' 17jun13 Linda Kaucher in
openDemocracy "The BBC's reporting of issues from NHS reform,
welfare reform and the looming EU US trade deal can be better understood
by looking at the BBC's Business Unit. A narrow and questionable 'business
perspective' drives more coverage than viewers may think."
'How
the EU is making NHS privatisation permanent' Benedict Cooper
3dec13 in New
Statesman Refers to work by Linda Kaucher - who's giving a
talk in Kendal.
'NHS
Not Safe From Private Firms In Controversial TTIP Deal, UK Admits'
Asa Bennett, 1sep14 HuffPost. Trade Minister Lord Livingston wants the
NHS to be in the TTIP and thus affected by it.
'NHS
'at mercy of predatory US healthcare firms' if controversial
Washington trade deal goes through' Jack Blanchard, 1sep14 -
Mirror Online "Labour MP Grahame Morris, who sits on the Commons health
committee, warned: “This is a sinister trade deal." "If it goes through
without any changes, it will make the privatisation of services like the
NHS irreversible.”"
'We're
already pouring £9bn of NHS money into big business - and TTIP will
make it worse' Nick Dearden, 25nov14 - The Independent. Also
summarizes likely impact of TTIP on local democracy, local government
(e.g. threat to "buy local" procurement), local food sovereignty.
In The BMJ: 'The Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership and UK healthcare' by John
Hilary, Executive Director of War on Want.
Professor
John
Ashton (health)
[to distinguish him from the equally notable John Ashton (climate) who
I understand are related], is President of the UK’s Faculty of Public
Health (FPH). As Professor John Ashton has strong local connections, I
have copied this to the Westmorland Gazette for their information.
On
FPH’s recent web-page TTIP 'threat to people's
health in UK and across Europe'
John Ashton states:
“We
believe TTIP is a threat to the public’s health. The EU tells us that
corporations won’t be able to force the UK government to change its
laws. Yet, they could force the government to pay vast sums of
taxpayer’s money in compensation if laws do not suit the interests of
shareholders. That could mean that critical standards that protect the
public’s health against unsafe consumer goods, dangerous workplaces and
environmental hazards may be lowered to dangerous levels.”
FPH
states: “FPH calls for the EU to reject TTIP and put health
before profit in ‘Trading Health?’, its in-depth policy report on
TTIP, which is launched today.” [my bolding]
“People’s
health in the UK and across Europe is threatened by plans to introduce
measures that could lower vital health, consumer safety and
environmental standards to dangerous levels, say 71 public health
organisations from 41 European countries in a joint statement today (13
March).”
11may16 Glyn Moody tweeted that this is
an excellent detailed analysis: Michael Hudson: Warning to Europe – How the
TTIP Threatens Public Health Care and Pensions - in naked
capitalism.
'The
Efford Bill – A Trojan Horse?' Dr Lucy Reynolds, 18nov14, in
NHAspace. A removal/reinstatement trick to enlarge competition for
the NHS, but not for any private monopolies? The wording makes it weak
against TTIP, though pretends not to be so at first brief glance. This
insightful article also provides very useful references on not just the
Efford Bill (e.g. by prof. Allyson Pollock et al.) but also the other
stealthy tricks and weaseling with words to implace privatisation since
and including the 2012 Health and Social Care Act.
People's
NHS - fighting to stop the sell-off of our health - www.peoplesnhs.org
No Health
Selloff at Morecambe Bay
- Email if you want to join their
campaign: nohealthselloffatmorecambebay@gmail.com
And the impact of TTIP on our health
will not just be via NHS locked-in privatization but also threatens to
increase prices on drugs by extending patent periods:
(the TPP Trans-Pacific Partnership is the Pacific
equivalent of the TTIP, linked via the US and its transnational
corporations)
Refers to: 'US
and Japan Lead Attack on Affordable Cancer Treatments' -
Wikileaks, 16oct14.
NHS privatisation:
more links on this web-page: www.dragonfly1.plus.com/NHSprivatisationMUSTbeSTOPPED.html
More
to add
'The
Trans-Pacific Partnership A Threat To Global Health' Deane
Marchbein, President of the Doctors Without Borders USA Board of
Directors, 20may15
"Climate change is expected to cause 250,000 additional deaths per year
between 2030 and 2050, affecting the poorest countries with weak health
care systems" - a top issue at the World Health Summit in Berlin this
week. EurActiv Germany reports.
TTIP will significantly increase emissions and climate change, as my
study reports (link in resources section).
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USEFUL
LINKS
Our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/StopTTIPSouthLakes
STOP
TTIP http://stop-ttip.org/
- the European organization that has set up:
The 'Self-organised
EUROPEAN CITIZENS' INITIATIVE
(ECI) against TTIP and CETA'
Stop
TTIP uk campaign - Linda
Kaucher - www.StopTTIP.net
- have produced an excellent insightful and easy-read booklet explaining
TTIP and the forces behind it - I hope they put it online. In the meantime
the website also has insightful explanatory information. Linda Kaucher has
studied so-called "trade agreements" for many years going back to and
beyond, from 1999's "Battle of Seattle" against the WTO global
pro-corporate-power globalization push - trying to get all nations to sign
up (since then the process has been even more insidious - via incremental
FTAs and BITs).
Here's one of Linda Kaucher's articles, which shows how pro-bigbiz
de-regulation by both UK Deregulation Bill and EU's equivalent push is
connected with deregulation in TTIP (but by a different name(s)): 'The
EU's giant and secretive deregulation blitz' openDemocracy.
John Hilary (War
on Want): his briefing document on TTIP, for those who want to
read more detail:
http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/trade-justice/more/inform/18078-what-is-ttip
and/or here:
http://rosalux.gr/sites/default/files/publications/ttip_web.pdf
No Health
Selloff at Morecambe Bay
- Email if you want to join their
campaign: nohealthselloffatmorecambebay@gmail.com
My website on "Free Trade Agreements"
has numerous useful links classified into sections, so you can study in
detail a particular sub-topic that especially interests you, such as the
ISDS, impact on climate, NHS, precautionary principle etc, etc. Scroll
down here for a copy of its introduction and contents, or go to the
whole page here under a new browser tab: www.bit.ly/FTAthreats
FILM:
'The
trouble with TTIP' New (June 2015) hour long video on TTIP,
recommended by Linda Kaucher and Glyn Moody. Made by Stephen Morris.
Quoting Linda: "It features interviews with John Hilary (War on Want)
Sam Lowe (Friends of the Earth England and Wales), Glyn Moody (IT/trade
blogger) Jean Lambert (Green MEP) and myself." https://vimeo.com/channels/thetroublewithttip
TTIP leaks May 2016
(pdf of links): www.dragonfly1.plus.com/TTIPleaks-collationoflinks.pdf
George
Monbiot on TTIP and
ISDS:
- insightful, punchy, always a good read!
4nov14 'The
British government is leading a gunpowder plot against democracy' - in The Guardian "This bill of
corporate rights threatens to blow the sovereignty of parliament unless it
can be stopped".
11mar14
'Give
and take in the EU-US trade deal? Sure. We give, the
corporations take'.
2dec13 'The lies behind this transatlantic trade deal' "Plans
to
create an EU-US single market will allow corporations to sue governments
using secretive panels, bypassing courts and parliaments".
4nov13 'This
transatlantic trade deal is a full-frontal assault on democracy' "Brussels
has
kept quiet about a treaty that would let rapacious companies subvert our
laws, rights and national sovereignty".
FoE TTIP briefing: 'Stop
this Trojan Horse Treaty' https://www.foe.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/stop-trojan-treaty-47364.pdf
- Samuel
Lowe, Friends
of the Earth: sam.lowe@foe.co.uk, @SamuelMarcLowe
Also see: http://www.foe.co.uk/page/secret-eu-us-trade-deal
More
to add ...
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SUMMARY introductory paragraph on
"Free Trade Agreements" and similar treaties.
Big multinational corporations are
insidiously using the negotiations towards "Free Trade Agreements"
(FTAs) such as TTIP (EU-USA) and CETA (EU-Canada) to increase their
power over and above sovereign states by secretively stitching up the
world's nations within legal straitjackets. These are forming a global
sticky web that will be increasingly difficult for nations to get out of
when the public eventually realize how much "democracy" has been
seriously diminished. Such corporations are achieving this by
playing a major part within the "behind closed doors" FTA negotiations
between nations and nation-groups such as the EU. These negotiations are
non-transparent, inaccessible and unaccountable to us the public and any
NGOs trying to protect our public-interest. The resulting FTAs become
"Trojan Horses" by containing dangerous text that levels-down
regulations between nations and enables transnational or foreign corporations
to not only have an early influence in the development of any new
regulations or legislation but worst of all, enables
them to sue governments using their own corporate-friendly tribunal
system if any new regulations might reduce their future profits.
Web-site
written by Dr Henry Adams, Kendal, (that's
me) who has been reading up on FTAs since 2011, when I received a not
so "re-assuring" letter from Ed Davey MP (then in BIS, now DECC) after
I wrote to government (via Tim Farron MP) on the dangers of CETA
in forcing higher-carbon-emissions tar
sands fuels into the EU and UK.
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Tim Farron MP - communications
with him
Spring 2016 Tim
Farron has written to EU's Trade Commissioner with several to all of the
questions that one of us (Henry Adams) wrote regarding TTIP’s impact on
climate legislation such as the Fuel Quality Directive, and CETA with
regards democratic process. This pdf shows the questions: www.dragonfly1.plus.com/QuestionsToCeciliaMalmstrom.pdf
And if you would like to read the thread of correspondence with Tim
Farrron MP and Catherine Bearder MEP on the above and Climate
Red Lines for TTIP and CETA here is a pdf of it: www.dragonfly1.plus.com/EmailsTimFarron-ClimateRedLines&MalmstromQ's.pdf
12feb16 - Surgery
meeting with Tim Farron MP in Kendal on Friday 12 February 2016 -
mainly on Climate
Red Lines for TTIP and CETA (pdf)
19jan16 - TTIP and SME's:
Link
to pdf of my email letter to Tim Farron on this subject, to make him
aware of SME's who are against TTIP.
20nov15 I met Tim Farron briefly at his surgery today, but only
had time to update him on the ISDS-ICS-"ISDS-lite" issue, and on the
recently published TPP which provides a good example of what the US
negotiators want for TTIP and its investment protection chapter - which is
chilling. My write-up is appended within the pdf for my 12feb16 surgery
meeting.
On 16sep15
the EU Commission's Cecilia Malmstrom put forward their version of
an "ISDS-lite", re-badging it ICS
- the Investment Court System. It is similar to the
"ISDS-lite" voted for by LibDem's only MEP Catherine Bearder. This pdf
links to both it and responses by NGO's and several political Parties http://www.dragonfly1.plus.com/EU-Commission-proposal-for-ICS-&-responses.pdf
Meetings
and email threads on ISDS, ISDS-lite, ICS, re TTIP, CETA and TPP:
7sep15
email, and thread including 8jul15 email from Catherine Bearder
MEP supporting TTIP and EP's proposed replacement for ISDS (which we
nick-name "ISDS-lite") http://www.dragonfly1.plus.com/EmailtoTimFarronReTTIP,ISDSlite,CETA,ISDS-on7sep15.pdf
July 2015: This
link is to a pdf [or
try www.bit.ly/TTIPclimateBearder]
comprising a thread of correspondence and meetings of Henry Adams with Tim
Farron MP mainly on TTIP and climate change, also on separate court
systems (ISDS & "ISDS-lite"), with added correspondence with Catherine
Bearder MEP, and the GreenLibDems
(Catherine Bearder [SE England] is the Liberal Democrat Party’s only MEP -
and is also in the GreenLibDems). This thread mainly concerns the
European Parliament's plenary voting for a resolution on TTIP
which took place on 8th
July 2015, after a delay because the leading pro-TTIP MEPs -
including the EP President Martin Schulz, reckoned the resolution might
not be voted through on the earlier programmed date (!).
The views Tim Farron expresses in summary appear to be from a simple ideological and
idealistic belief: that what he thinks of as “free trade”, is good for
peace and prosperity (despite much evidence showing that "Free Trade
Agreements" - which are actually much more than just about trade (hence my
added ""), create social stresses, security risks and even violence, and
worrying research conclusions that TTIP will be bad for prosperity, except
for "the 1%").
Both Tim and I agree from a starting point that trade
is a good thing in general, but where we differ from then on is
in taking that to assume that all types of trade - especially "free
trade" - are also a good thing. "Free trade" in the real world is
how the big corporations and their lobby groups regard it, exploit it, and
how they get it into international law - and my experience from
investigating it reveals the many dark sides that Tim Farron appears to
"filter out", in his hope that "free trade" is or will be - how he would
like it to be, or like to believe it is (if belief and perception can be
adequately protected from evidence to the contrary). A key point here that
Tim appears to turn a blind eye to, is that "free trade" in "free trade
agreements" such as TTIP means much more than just trade: in fact it is
much more to do with "liberalizing" the activity of foreign companies and
transnational corporations by the removal of Non-Tariff-Barriers (NTBs)
which in reality means deregulation - including the
dilution or removal of hard-fought-for regulations that protect vital
requirements such as health and safety, environment/climate, democratic
and human rights... Tim has argued that TTIP could equally result in
levelling-up of regulations - which is absurdly untenable as on most
matters except finance, the US has lower regulatory standards than the UK
and EU, and any negotiations towards a "deal" inevitably get pulled
towards midway compromises...
I would not bother to brief him so frequently on the reality-from-evidence
of what free trade agreements and the ISDS actually are if I didn't have a
glimmer of hope that he will see the reality at least in part - such as on
deregulation, climate impacts etc - before it's too late.
Previous communications:
May 2015: Great news: Tim
agreed that TTIP should not give legal primacy to free trade principles
above the need to tackle climate change, and actually said this
at a hustings (though the GJN-organized hustings). But not-so-good-news:
Tim is wavering on the ISDS - probably because he has heard of the
Malmstrom compromise for the ISDS, which ALDE (the alliance of European
Liberal Democrat MEPs) is likely to be supporting.
21jan15: Great news: Tim writes to his constituents who've expressed
concerns over TTIP especially the ISDS that “[I] do
not support the inclusion of an ISDS within the TTIP negotiations”.
This is a very welcome change. However, being very much pro-"free trade",
he still supports TTIP other than the ISDS. In his email to me on 21jan15
to which he attached his statement to constituents he wrote: "Whilst I
remain a supporter for free trade, over the period that I've been looking
more closely at this subject I have come to the view that an
ISDS agreement is not needed between two parties with mature legal
systems. I'm grateful to you for taking the time to pass on so
much information on this issue to me, which has been really valuable when
I've been considering this." [my bold emphasis]. Here is a pdf copy of Tim Farron's 21jan15
position statement on TTIP, ISDS and NHS.
On Friday 28nov14 I had a brief
surgery meeting with Tim Farron during which I provided him a first set
of incisive questions for him to forward to Lord Livingston to
critically expose weak points in Livingston's letter:
Link to copy of Lord
Livingston’s letter to Tim Farron MP in response to my July
briefing document for Tim Farron:
My July briefing document for Tim
Farron MP – which he emailed to Dept for BIS for specific responses to
numbered points e.g re the ISDS:
'TTIP CETA ISDS: a
debate with Tim Farron MP (with images, tweets) · henryadamsUK ·
Storify'
https://storify.com/henryadamsUK/ttip-ceta-isds-debate-with-tim-farron-mp
- centred on a twitter debate with Tim Farron on 13th
October 2014, but starting with tweets to the LibDem conference
Beware: contains some humour including irony...
I
am about to publish a document assessing Tim Farron's views more
thoroughly, based on a debate we had in a surgery meeting this summer.
I have passed on the 1st draft to Tim asking him to amend any of my
text summarizing his views if he considers them unrepresentative, but
I have had no response to that so I'll assume I've accurately
represented his views and will publish.
Yet
to add all of these (a year plus worth - i.e. a lot!)
Tim
Farron's views he
expresses are as I wrote above, from a
simple ideological and idealistic belief: that what he thinks of as
“free trade”, is good for peace and prosperity.
He
fails to understand or accept that increasing the "freedom" or
liberalization of business (which he much likes the idea of) would
also decrease the liberalization or freedom for us and democracy -
from the over-bearing and increasing power of corporate big business
to profit however they wish, with freedom from the regulatory
restraints that try to protect our environment, climate, health,
public services, employment rights, and wildlife habitats. For example
he appears to block his mind to (and repeatedly dodges questions on)
the impacts on climate change of further liberalization of the fossil
fuel industry. This is despite my having briefed him over many years
on this (e.g. more recently 5 & 6 of resources above), and as a
prime example: the expanding tar sands industry and its desire to
transport much more of its high emissions products to Europe (i.e. by
trade liberalization from EU regulations such as the Fuel Quality
Directive).
He has been helpful in writing to government (the SoS for Dept. BIS)
to get responses from them to his representations of his constituent's
views (as shown in my letters/emails/briefings to him), but avoids
writing words of agreement with the statements I write, even though
they are arguments referring to evidence. (So his omission of positive
endorsement thus reduces their potential impact on government).
I have been trying to persuade Tim Farron for over a year with the
evidence I provide him but he doesn't appear to take in or accept any
of it as providing the overall picture from his viewpoint, or see any
implications from the evidence I provide (as if regarding the evidence
maybe as being of exceptions to the picture he envisages), so fixed in
his mind is "free trade" as a wonderful thing for peace and
prosperity, free from barriers to trade. Also he likes to focus on the
"trade" aspect despite that being but a small part of a "Free Trade
Agreement" in reality. However when I focus on the ISDS - he has
replied that he agrees that UK companies based in his constituency
should have an easy method such as the ISDS to get their own way in
the US, despite the fact that US companies could then do the same
thing in the UK (e.g. fracking companies), and also despite the
massive evidence of misuse of the ISDS I have presented to him, such
as a fracking company suing Canada for Quebec's moratorium on fracking
(again he may be dismissing the evidence as being exceptional cases -
which wouldn't of course apply to the UK [not my view]).
The
following text including that in green and blue is copied from my
large web-page on "free trade agreements". Despite being briefed with
evidence and evidence-based reasoning for over a year now on TTIP, Tim
Farron still sticks to the coalition / Vince Cable propaganda despite
the latter having been shown to have no basis in fact (e.g. John
Hilary of War on Want has demolished much of it).
Autumn 2013: Unfortunately the
LibDems have formed a briefing document that blinkerdly promotes the
TTIP by regurgitating 1-sided neoliberal propaganda that focuses
primarily on money-making/growth/GDP (then on "jobs"), to the exclusion
of other relevant aspects of great importance such as sovereignty,
democracy, environment, climate change etc. Nonetheless several LibDem
MPs have signed EDM 793. Should the LibDem Party be more descriptively
now be re-named as the Neoliberal Party? I hope it doesn't turn to this.
So if your MP is LibDem, please read the following paragraphs and write
to him/her (&/or visit at MP surgery).
Correspondence
between Brian Woodward and Tim Farron MP re the TTIP
(pdf) shows
that Tim Farron was in February 2014 supporting the LibDem Party line
with very little critical assessment of it. Includes Brian's excellent
critical assessment of the TTIP and LibDem's promotion of it.
We need to persuade Tim to take heed
of our views. This is too important a matter for Party tribalism. The following is more up to date wrt
Tim Farron's current views:
Correspondence
and meetings between Henry Adams and Tim
Farron MP (pdf)
<<< NB: Now updated to 29th March 2014
SLACC-TT members
especially: Though my 28feb14 meeting with Tim Farron appeared to be
promising, with Tim instructing his assistants to research into at
least points 1 and 2 above, on my subsequent meeting with him on
21st March it was apparent to me that he had not read up about the
ISDS mechanism (i.e. re point 1.) nor understood the reasons why
there is a default net pressure in the negotiations towards leveling
down, not up, of the regulations which we have to counter (2.). He
even assumes leveling-up is the default steer, despite admitting
having not read-up on the subject of TTIP, in which case a "neutral"
a priori viewpoint should be 50:50. Please write to Tim urging him
to read up on the subject, especially my points 1. to 3., and to
make a strong public stand against the ISDS. I hope you will find my
correspondence helpful in writing an email to Tim. NB:
28th March sequel: I showed Tim
the 5 minute video on the ISDS and fracking (NO FRACKING WAY |
How the EU-US trade deal risks expanding fracking...): this was a "game-changer" and
obviously very much engaged his attention. Spring/early summer: Tim
has written a strong letter to Vince Cable re TTIP and ISDS
including some of my writings on their threat to our future ability
to tackle climate change through democratic processes.
Government responded with a pro-TTIP "reassurance letter".
I then wrote a rebuttal demolishing some of his claims (especially
his weak and incorrect text re climate change impacts):
Here
I write a detailed rebuttal
of Ken Clarke's pro-TTIP "reassurance"
letter to Tim
Farron MP (pdf),
July 2014. Shortened link: www.bit.ly/FTAhenryKC
<<<
Letter re
TTIP, CETA, ISDS, by Brian Woodward (main author) to represent
views of South Lakeland WDM: SL-WDM-letter-TTIP-CETA-ISDS.pdf
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BACK TO TOP of page
Impact of TTIP and CETA on local
democracy and councils
Very useful info on Global
Justice Now website: e.g. 'Local
councils are starting to tear strips off TTIP' by Kevin Smith,
28aug15 - describes potential straight-jacketing impacts of TTIP on local
democracy (e.g. on local procurement); also the 'TTIP
free zone' campaign - and links to useful resources and
briefings.
2016: There
is now a TTIP FREE ZONES Europe
website to provide European solidarity to this campaign: www.ttip-free-zones.eu
Other GJN resources: Model
TTIP motion for local authorities & Make
the UK a TTIP Free Zone - email your councillors
& Local
government briefing: The EU-US trade deal: How TTIP could cripple
local government (June 2015).
Highly acclaimed
assessment by Janet
Sillett of the Local Government Information Unit, www.lgiu.org.uk
POLICY
BRIEFING Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP): implications for local
government 29 October 2014, by Janet
Sillett:
http://www.lgiu.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Transatlantic-Trade-and-Investment-Partnership-implications-for-local-government.pdf
Letter
from StopTTIPuk to leaders of local councils: StopTTIPukLAletter.pdf
- by Katherine Williams and Linda Kaucher on behalf of StopTTIPuk, 2015.
ACTION: This is a very useful template
if you want one - to help you write to your councillors.
CETA and public services - an analysis of leaked CETA text:
https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2014/09/making_sense_of_the_ceta_PUBLICSERVICES.pdf
NEWS:
Brian Woodward has already given a talk (but he was only allowed "3
minutes"!) to local SLDC councillors on the impacts of TTIP on local
councils and the NHS.
April 2016 The
Barcelona Declaration (pdf) - this declaration by
"Mayors and elected local representatives, participating in the first
Pan-European Meeting of Local Authorities" on TTIP, CETA, TiSA will
hopefully help increase the number of "TTIP Free Zones" and their
"solidarity" and effectiveness in combating the constraints and loss of
local democratic power that these agreements would impose on local
authorities and democratically elected councils. Other refs to this: https://www.ttip-free-zones.eu/node/92
& 'Barcelona Declaration' of European cities
demands suspension of TTIP talks Common Space, 22apr16. Sue Walley of GJN-SouthLakes
visited the event on day 2 as part of a GJN contingent led by GJN's James
O'Nions and gave us an excellent slide presentation on 9may16, followed by
a workshop on how we can progress this with our own local councillors. I
hope to post a link to her slide presentation soon: it has some bullet
points that would be useful to put across to your councillors.
ACTION suggestions:
Write to your local councillors (Town Council, SLDC, CCC) encouraging them
towards making your town, district and/or county council a "TTIP Free
Zone". The STOP TTIP UK template letter is helpful for this, so too the
GJN links and other links above.
USEFUL CONTACT info:
SLDC web-page listing “Your
Councillors”: http://democracy.southlakeland.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx
Cumbria County Council
"Find Councillor": http://councilportal.cumbria.gov.uk/mgFindMember.aspx
Try Parish: Kendal, or e.g. Staveley with Ings. But could do with a
boundary map of parishes!
Kendal Town Council -
councillors: http://www.kendaltowncouncil.gov.uk/town-councillors-2/
Alternatively use the www.writetothem.com
website, or the GJN link above that also provides you an email template.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BACK TO TOP of page (e.g. to access NHS section etc)
Extract from start of my main
web-page on TTIP, CETA, ISDS etc:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
text below is copied and pasted from the web-page resource created by
Henry Adams on "Free Trade Agreements" (FTAs) such as TTIP and CETA,
and "Bilateral Investment Treaties" (BITs). Link to the whole of it: www.bit.ly/FTAthreats
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Web-site written by Dr Henry Adams, Kendal,
(that's me) who has been reading up on FTAs since 2011, when I
received a not so "re-assuring" letter from Ed Davey MP (then in
BIS, now DECC) after I wrote to government (via Tim Farron MP) on
the dangers of CETA in forcing
higher-carbon-emissions tar
sands fuels into the EU and UK. Thank you Trade
Justice Movement for describing this web-page as "a great
resource". This web-page is currently being continually improved.
URGENT ACTION:
Please sign up to 38 Degrees constituency-level action against TTIP
(leafleting etc) from end of August onwards: http://ttipaction.38degrees.org.uk #NoTTIP
ACTION:
Please sign the 'Self-organised
EUROPEAN CITIZENS' INITIATIVE
(ECI) against TTIP and CETA' Sign the ECI! Stop TTIP
More ACTION options in
ACTION by YOU section (see above - highlighted)
NB:
Westmorland & Lonsdale constituency and South
Lakes residents - green text is for you.
NB: Correction with apologies: I had typed in
'Wednesday 27th September' when I meant August. We will be
having another meeting c.end of Sept./start of August.
My
briefing for Tim Farron MP
in July (a pdf):
www.bit.ly/FTAbriefTimFarron
-
now with Vince Cable/BIS for responses to specific numbered points.
LEAFLETING ACTION: Please read, download, print and
distribute this pdf
leaflet by 'STOP TTIP South Lakes'. More on this in ACTION
by YOU section.
Joseph
Stiglitz, Nobel prize-winning economist, said with
regards 'Free Trade Agreements' such as TTIP/TAFTA: "Corporations
everywhere may well agree that getting rid of regulations would be
good for corporate profits. Trade negotiators might be persuaded
that these trade agreements would be good for trade and corporate
profits. But there would be some big losers - namely, the rest of
us." (copied from www.citizen.org/TAFTA).
Legislation is under negotiation that would allow US
multinational corporations such as Chevron or Monsanto to sue the UK
or EU outside our court system if any new UK or EU laws or regulations
might reduce their future profits (such as climate legislation). If
this threat to our democratic rights to try for a better future
"raises your hackles" then this web-page I hope will arm you to have
your say.
Trade agreements can potentially
be beneficial for the majority of affected people, but the so-called
'Free Trade Agreements', and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs),
which are enveloping the world, are like "Trojan Horses" as they
affect much more than just trade, and in ways opposite to beneficial,
except for a minority. They are in effect "corporate charters",
negotiated behind closed doors with exclusive access and influence
given to corporate interests to further their aims for maximizing
profits and global domination. The latter is implemented by the
dangerous text they typically contain that empowers multi-national
corporations to legally trump or straight-jacket national and EU
law, policy and regulations, and thus also democracy and sovereignty.
FTAs and BITs prioritize profit over people, and are a huge threat to
our climate, environment, health and safety, human rights, employment
rights, indigenous peoples' rights etc, etc (the list is long). This
web-page explains how FTAs are dangerous in these ways, and provides
evidence from existing FTAs.
The biggest FTA affecting the UK now
is the Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership (TTIP)
between the EU and US, which is currently under negotiation. As with
other FTAs, one of its main aims, and its largest requirement for its
hyped-up financial benefits, is deregulation:
the levelling down or removal of key regulations protecting us and our
environment, such as from toxic chemicals, pollution, carbon emissions,
fracking, environmental destruction, misuse of GM and pesticides,
employment rights, bank crises, etc. These hard-won regulations TTIP
lumps in the category 'non-tariff barriers' - barriers to potential
profits for multinational corporations. Also within this category are
public procurement policies, to be prized open with a legal ratchet for
irreversible privatization of public services such as
the NHS - to convert taxpayers money into dividends for the rich. TTIP
will increase some regulations: those that protect corporate power and
profits. Here is a 4 minute
introductory video of TTIP: What
is the TTIP?
This web-page aims to provide you with information and resources to help
you have your say on these FTAs, especially the TTIP and its equivalent
with Canada (the CETA).
Do
watch this excellent 5 minute video, which gives evidence of some
of the worst aspects of FTAs, such as their most dangerous clause the ISDS mechanism, which we must fight to remove from the
TTIP and other FTAs:
|
NO FRACKING WAY | How the
EU-US trade deal risks expanding fracking in Europe and the US
| news release [2014] from SourcedTV
on Vimeo.
'A
trade agreement currently being negotiated between the US
and the EU could open the way to multi-billion euro
lawsuits from companies wanting to expand “fracking” for
shale gas and oil, reveals a new report today. As part of
the proposed investor rights chapter in
the EU-US trade deal, companies could be allowed
to sue governments, through a binding arbitration system
that operates outside national frameworks, if they attempt
to regulate or ban fracking
[or change any policy or regulation that might reduce
profits from any activity of a multi-national company].
Campaigning groups are urging the EU to not include such
rights in the trade deal.' - Such corporate
rights are the ISDS mechanism, which this web-page describes
in detail further below.
|
Click
here to help stop the corporate power grab
This power grab, unless
checked, will give corporations a profit-focused set of laws
with legal superiority above national sovereignty and thus
democracy. With such added powers (as if multi-nationals are
not powerful enough!), corporations are likely to legally
force these on you: fracking and other
risky extraction processes, Monsanto's GM crops
and pesticides, more pollution
of air, land and water, higher carbon emissions
diesel from the destructive tar sands industry, irreversible
privatization of public services (e.g. NHS),
increased stifling of climate legislation by oil companies
such as Chevron, etc, etc.
|
For
CONTENTS - scroll down (the jump to CONTENTS does not work well in
Safari and Chrome)
There are better alternative forms of trade to
"free trade", and fair
trade is better than "free trade"!
Be aware that FTAs affect much more than just trade, and removing
the very low remaining tariffs is but a tiny part of what they encompass:
They impact on almost all economic and political activity and more
besides: they will affect all of us: much of what we do and try to do.
If you don't want big multi-national companies being given legal powers to
constrain and even over-ride national sovereignty and your democratic
rights, then I hope you will find this web-page useful to you as a
resource to help you defend your rights.
If this subject is new to you (it has been hidden from the public) -
scroll down to read my introduction, or a recent 'must-read' article, then
if you feel the urge to respond - jump to the ACTION
by YOU section, such as via the CONTENTS. Don't feel you have to read everything on
this page before going to the action section. This is a huge multi-topic
subject, much of which you can regard as for reference, for picking out
what topics interest you most, whether it be tackling climate change, NHS
privatization, food and farming standards ...
South
Cumbria's Cumberland and
Lonsdale constituents (including SLACCtt
& SL-WDM): 1. the green text is for you, 2. the 'ACTION
by YOU' section provides help for you to write to Tim
Farron MP. SLACCtt:
note that there is a section on impacts of FTAs on CLIMATE
CHANGE, fracking,
tar sands (via CONTENTS below).
CONTENTS of
this web-site Jumps to sections within this
web-site:
v v
v
Westmorland
& Lonsdale constituents: useful information specific
for you in the ACTION by YOU section
v
Negative
aspects: | ISDS
< the most dangerous threat!
| Levelling down regulations | Corporate
vetting of proposed regs | Will precautionary
principle survive? | Re human rights
& indigenous rights | Lowering of
food & farming standards | Privatization of public services e.g. NHS
| Employment rights | Chemicals
| Education | Intellectual
Property Rights, Patents & Copyright | Internet
freedom & privacy | Further deregulation
for financial services | Corporate
tax-dodging ensures no level playing field | Flawed
neoliberal ideology
Recent
or must
read articles:
(to view more click HERE,
from where you can click to get back to CONTENTS section)
My
briefing for Tim Farron MP
in July (a pdf):
www.bit.ly/FTAbriefTimFarron
A useful summary of the strong concerns of NGOs representing our
public interests: 11nov13
letter (pdf) re TTIP/TAFTA to Obama, Barroso, Van Rompuy which
has many signatories for NGOs etc from both sides of the
Atlantic.
16apr14 [Not
introductory but powerfully useful and up-to-date:] 'Still
not loving ISDS: 10 reasons to oppose investors’
super-rights in EU trade deals' - Corporate Europe
Observatory.
'What
does the biggest free trade deal in history mean for the
environment?' The Guardian ECO
AUDIT of 14mar14, with Karl Mathieson collating
comments and ending with his verdict.
'Give
and take in the EU-US trade deal? Sure. We give, the
corporations take' George
Monbiot, 11mar14, The Guardian. And... (continue
here).
'30 Reasons why Greens oppose
TTIP' - 6jun14. <<<
Excellent, and easy to read.
This brief concise summary is also an easy read: TTIP
of the Iceberg [but 2nd sentence of 2nd paragraph
is strangely wrong].
Here
I write a detailed rebuttal
of Ken Clarke's pro-TTIP "reassurance" letter
to Tim Farron MP (pdf), July
2014. Shortened link: www.bit.ly/FTAhenryKC
An
excellent letter re TTIP, CETA, ISDS, by Dr
Brian Woodward (main author) to represent views
of South Lakeland WDM: SL-WDM-letter-TTIP-CETA-ISDS.pdf
Brian briefly summarizes some
TTIP issues at NW Transition Conference on 12july14: 'TTIP
and Transition'
Introduction
(N.B. in reality, FTA's
are not just about trade)
Big multinational corporations are insidiously using the negotiations
towards Free Trade Agreements to increase their power over and above
sovereign states by secretively stitching up the world's nations within
legal straitjackets. These are forming a global sticky web that will be
increasingly difficult for nations to get out of when the public
eventually realize how much "democracy" has been seriously
diminished. Such corporations are achieving this by playing a major
part within the "behind closed doors" FTA negotiations between nations and
nation-groups such as the EU. These negotiations are non-transparent,
inaccessible and unaccountable to us the public and any NGOs trying to
protect our public-interest. The resulting FTAs become "Trojan Horses" by
containing dangerous "payloads". Here are some:
1. Deregulation: Under the name "regulatory
harmonisation" or other preferred terms they try to level down or
eliminate any regulations or policies that can be regarded as being
"barriers to free trade" and free market principles, or to investment
profits, even those
regulations designed to protect people and environments. Profits
are given legal primacy over everything else. Conversely they aim to
increase regulations that protect potential profits - especially from
those corporate activities that are against the public interest (i.e. that
would be harder to gain legal protection under democratic scrutiny).
2. Especially dangerous is the inclusion in the investment chapter of text
that gives companies the right to sue governments outside of our
legal and court system if their potential profits from trade,
investment or other activities are restricted or threatened by any new
policy decisions or new laws and regulations. This text is the Investor-to-State
Dispute Settlement mechanism (ISDS)
- which I will explain in the "Trojan Horse" section below. There is
already ample evidence from existing FTAs and BITs that corporations are
suing governments for loss of profits from, for example, attempts to stop
polluting and destructive mining projects, and fracking.
3. For the
regulatory co-operation chapter (which includes the
problematical "regulatory harmonization" aim), US is pushing for
US interests and their lobbying groups and stakeholders (mostly
industry) to be given the power to amend, dilute, delay or
possibly even block any EU ideas for regulatory improvements,
and at an undemocratically early stage in the development
process - before even reaching a stage of democratic involvement
(by MEPs or public citizens). Proposed climate legislation could
thus be killed at birth by Chevron, a US official adviser and
backed by the US trade representative. [Refs: CEO, FT, etc in
CONTENTS | CLIMATE CHANGE...).
4. They provide legal pressure for irreversible
privatization of public services. For the UK and its
NHS this is dangerous, especially if the NHS is not made 100%
exempt from this threat in the EU-US trade deal now under
negotiation. The opening up of he NHS and its huge supply of
taxpayers money to plundering by corporate interests and their
shareholders is worrying: it is a very tempting treasure trove
for transfer of taxpayers money to shareholder dividends and
company directors - which Cameron and Osborne are pleased to
make available under the false presumption that private is
better than public for delivering public services [G4S? ATOS?
private care homes?...!]. It is also central to calculations of
[speculative] "financial benefits" [to whom?] of the trade deal.
Kendal's Dr Brian Woodward provides insightful summary of this
from official references [pdf
of his letter].
Most important to us in the UK right now are the FTAs under negotiation
between the EU and USA
(TTIP) and between EU
and Canada (the CETA).
The other huge FTA under negotiation is the trans-Pacific TPP
between USA and other states in or bordering the Pacific. With these
in place it will be checkmate: no nation will want to risk facing
multi-million (or even multi-billion) dollar lawsuits by creating any laws
or policies that might threaten corporate profits such as climate
legislation, restrictions on GM food imports or of destructive and
polluting mining projects.
"Free trade" Economics (skip if that's not your interest): "Free
trade" is being peddled as a cure-all to economic problems and to give a
boost to the flawed goal of unqualified GDP growth, despite the
reality that "Free Trade Agreements" have less to do with trade but much
more to do with profits from deregulation and privatization, which shift
costs onto us. The cure-all notion is a neoliberal ideological myth and a
part of “market fundamentalism”, or in reality a twisted form of all these
concepts - as the market created is far from being a “level playing field”
for fair competition, or ‘free’, as the biggest players ensure they get
the biggest advantage - and a legalized big advantage too, thus
paradoxically destroying the concept of a level playing field for a market
to function well. There are potential small benefits for trade agreements
in removing unnecessary tariffs (but there are minimal tariffs remaining
between EU and US), and removing subsidies that distort an even market for
trade, such as US subsidies for the oil and gas industry, and for growing
maize (but the North American FTA failed to tackle these and I expect TTIP
will ignore these too). But
the use of the pro-corporate model inherent in FTAs and BITs, coupled with
corporate hijacking of trade negotiations, is resulting in an unfair shift
towards oligopoly, and thus ironically - 'market failure'. The costs to us
from deregulation are 'negative externalities' - also increasing 'market
failure'. Furthermore, financial instability due to speculation on
exchange rates causes much more problems for trade than small tariffs, yet
is ignored by the FTA model.
Other trade models such as the Alternative Trade Mandate are ignored
because they aim to benefit all of us, not just the rich and powerful
elite at our expense.
Free Trade Agreements are not so ‘free’ - they come
at a huge cost - to democracy, sovereignty, climate, environment and
natural resources, health and safety, workers' rights, human rights
etc:
[read on or jump up to CONTENTS or ACTION
by YOU]
Some of the
many bad aspects of FTA’s: (the
down-sides of globalization with FTAs)
The fact that this is a long list
is a big point in itself. And it's
expanding as my spare-time permits. I have yet to re-order it
according to severity of threat.
The worst aspect - the dangerous ISDS - is now item 2. in the
list because item 1. gives some background context - but this
can be skipped if you want to tackle the worst first!
The most concise and readable list I have encountered is this one: '30
Reasons why Greens oppose TTIP' - 6jun14.
And
for a fuller report, C.E.O. - Corporate Europe Observatory
have produced an excellent report: 'A brave new transatlantic
partnership - The proposed EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP/TAFTA), and its socio-economic & environmental
consequences' which you
can read on the WDM website here.
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