Tag Archives: TTIP

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Brian Hayes, Fine Gael MEP

Farrel Corcoran’s article contains arguments concerning the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks and coverage of TTIP that simply do not stand up to scrutiny.

Mr Corcoran argues that the proposed deal would allow the use of “carcinogenic pesticides” in foods. Let me be clear, nothing could be further from the truth. But that doesn’t stop protectionists deliberately misleading the public.

Again and again, European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström has said no EU trade agreement will ever lower our level of protection of consumers or food safety.

Both sides in the trade talks are crystal clear that importation of hormone treated meat will not happen. Yet those against trade have repeated something that they know was never on the agenda of the EU.

The precautionary principal, the EU’s guiding principal on food and safety standards remains unaltered.

When it comes to Ireland’s sovereignty the position couldn’t be clearer. The first item agreed in a joint declaration by the lead negotiators was that TTIP does not prevent governments, at any level, from providing or supporting services in areas such as water, education, health, and social services.

This has not stopped those against the talks framing the process as a kind of new conspiracy where the corporate world, aided and abated by the European Commission, has hatched a masterplan to impoverish us all by – wait for it – by increasing trade between the EU and the US.

He bemoans the fact, according to him, that there has been “little” media coverage. Come on, where has Mr Corcoran been for the past number of years?

Didn’t The Irish Times give him carte blanche in his article to peddle the usual distortions about TTIP. What’s he moaning about? You could nearly hear the tut-tutting from the opinion page.

Then he says there has been little civil society engagement and “no national debate” on TTIP. Well a debate requires a fair amount of time to both sides to make the case.

But it also requires an honest engagement with the facts rather than hyped, over-the-top and utterly sensationalist comments from Mr Corcoran and others.

TTIP is not a done deal, it’s a talks process and it’s ongoing. And I wouldn’t be holding my breath that it will come to an end anytime soon.

It’s caught up with elections in the US and Europe.

From Donald Trump to Nigel Farage, and now to Mr Corchtoran [sic], the line-up of populists against more trade is really quite breathaking. And this against a backdrop of high European unemployment and falling wages.

The sensible thing to do is to see what comes from TTIP at the end of the negotiation. Look at the issue in the round – the pros and cons – and then make a decision. I repeat there is no agreement between both sides, and there may never be.

Brian Hayes MEP
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.

Media, democracy and trade agreements (Irish Times letters page)

Previously: Luke’s TTIP

Leah Farrell/Rollingnews

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Anne Marie, from Uplift, writes:

Uplift, with support from the trade union Unite, commissioned a Red C public opinion poll on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) trade deals. From the results…

– 74% of people polled in Ireland want a referendum on TTIP and CETA.
– 62% agree that EU standards should not be changed to match US or Canadian standards.
– 4 out of 5 people don’t think that US or Canadian corporations should be allowed to sue EU governments whose legislative changes affect their profits.
– 69% of people would be concerned if TTIP or CETA were agreed

Previously: Luke’s TTIP

Uplift

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A letter from Fine Gael TD and Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor to the Ceann Comhairle.

It outlines the setting up of a reading room in the Dáil for Oireachtas members to peruse documents pertaining to the EU-US trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Sound familiar?

Via Pearse Doherty

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The idea of this meeting is to inform people of the secretly negotiated TTIP agreement between the USA and Europe. It is open to all.

We hope to be able to help launch an automonous local Anti TTIP group that can work with unions, political groupings and others to defeat TTIP, by being separate from but co-operative with others. This model has worked with the water charges movement in the area and we hope it can be as strong on TTIP.

FIGHT!

Joan Collins and Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan. Public meeting on TTIP (Facebook)

Previously: ‘The Details Of TTIP Need TO Be Discussed Openly, Honestly And Fairly’

Luke’s TTIP

 

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Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes

They say the most important part of a debate is defining the arguments. Suzanne Lynch’s excellent article explaining TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) is a perfect example of how TTIP opponents have been successful in defining what an EU-US trade agreement, like TTIP, might contain.

Opponents to Atlantic trade are focusing on the straw men of genetically modified food and hormone-treated beef. Let’s be clear – no EU trade agreement will ever lower our level of protection of consumers or food safety. European food standards are not up for negotiation.

Many of these issues arose in the EU-Canada trade deal and were resolved. The scare tactic put forward of some sort of malevolent investor court ruling for multinationals against governments is not borne out by history.

Investment protection exists in 1,400 bilateral agreements signed by EU member states since the 1960s. These have not stopped governments legislating in the public interest. Little if any attention has been given to the massive steps forward for workers rights and the environment a potential trade agreement between Europe and America could bring.

The sustainable development provisions the EU negotiators put forward are the most ambitious provisions on sustainable development, labour protection and the environment put to any trading partner. Europe’s negotiators want TTIP to include the International Labour Organisation’s core standards. The sustainable development chapter ensures high standards for labour and addresses health and safety at work and workers’ rights.

TTIP allows Europe to bring our environmental standards on biodiversity, shipments of chemicals and waste, and sustainable management of natural resources to bear on a global scale. The EU legal text enhances co-operation between the EU and US to fight illegal logging, illegal fishing and the illegal trade in endangered wildlife.

TTIP would make it easier to trade goods and services that help us tackle environmental problems, such as climate-friendly and resource-efficient products. We have an international agreement to combat climate change, and TTIP can help us implement it.

International trade negotiations are complex and cannot be boiled down to a slogan on a placard. The details of TTIP need to be discussed openly, honestly and fairly. A good start is to look at the totality of the negotiating documents and not straw men put forward by opponents to trade.

Brian Hayes MEP,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.

TTIP negotiations and global trade (Irish Times letters)

Previously: Luke’s TTIP

Leah Farrell/Rollingnews

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Taoiseach Enda Kenny and US President Barack Obama

You may recall the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal between the European Union and the US.

Part of the deal involves an ‘Investment Court System’.

Further to this…

Peter O’Dwyer, in today’s Irish Examiner, reports:

One of the most controversial aspects of the proposed deal is the inclusion of an investment court system (ICS), which critics argue would give corporations the power to sue sovereign states in trade disputes.

… Dublin-based senior counsel and former chairman of the Bar Council of England and Wales Matthias Kelly said the proposed investment court would “certainly infringe” upon the Irish Constitution in two areas and possibly three. In his opinion, the investment court system would:

Possibly infringe on Article 15.2.1 which vests sole power to make law in the Oireachtas;

Certainly infringe on Article 34.1 which vests the power to dispense justice in the Irish domestic courts;

Certainly infringe on Article 34.3.2 which makes the High Court and Appellate Courts above it the sole court in which a law may be questioned.

‘Referendum required’ in transatlantic trade deal (Peter O’Dwyer, Irish Examiner)

Previously: Luke’s TTIP

ceanncomhairle

Eric Scanlon writes:

As you know last weekend Greenpeace leaked a huge amount of documents on TTIP [Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership] to shed a light on the secretive trade agreement, which will have wide ranging implications.

This (above) is what happened when Sinn Féin’s Louise O Reilly TD raised the issue [on Wednesday] in the Dáil during the statements on climate change and rightly tried to speak about how the leak showed that TTIP would undermine action to mitigate against climate change and create a race to bottom on environmental regulation….

Previously: Luke’s TTIP

ming

 

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan MEP writes:

Just been contacted by staff from within the Euro Parliament and told I must remove this video. I won’t be. #TTIP

Previously: TTIP Of The Iceberg

TTIPing Point

Globalist Warning

TTIP?

attac

Free Monday?

The International CETA speaking tour will be held in Liberty Hall, Dublin at 7.30pm, hosted by Attac Ireland, which “resists neoliberal globalisation and campaigns for a more just, equal and sustainable world”.

CETA?

Barry Finnegan writes:

The Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), is the less well-known cousin of TTIP, the EU-US ‘free’ trade and investment deal currently being drafted. Negotiations on CETA are closed: if adopted by the European parliament early next year, it would allow companies to sue governments for compensation in a private arbitration called ISDS when they say that laws interfere with their profits.

The completed CETA trade deal is the first EU treaty to include an approach to services liberalisation through ‘negative lists’. This means that all categories of the services sector, including water, education and health, will be opened to competition and competitive private-sector tendering, except those services that have been explicitly excluded in the ‘negative list’ at the start of negotiations.

The text of CETA,, now available online, clearly shows that the Irish Government has not excluded water, health or education services from the enforced privatisation and tendering rules of CETA,

International CETA Speaking Tour (Facebook)

Attac Ireland

 

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Berlin, Germany

A massive protest in the German capital against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) accord being negotiated by the European Union and the United States.

John Gallen writes:

While we were fixated with sports, the Germans were protesting TTIP with 1/4 million of them out in Berlin. Note: German govt says 100,000 marched, organisers say 250,000…

Hundreds of Thousands March in Berlin Against TTIP Trade Deal (FilmsForAction)

Previously: TTiP Of The Iceberg