Stop TTIP

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was a proposed trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, with the aim of promoting trade and multilateral economic growth. According to Karel de Gucht, European Commissioner for Trade between 2010 and 2014, the TTIP would have been the largest bilateral trade initiative ever negotiated, not only because it would have involved the two largest economic areas in the world but also "because of its potential global reach in setting an example for future partners and agreements".

Negotiations were halted by United States president Donald Trump, who then initiated a trade conflict with the EU. Trump and the EU declared a truce of sorts in July 2018, resuming talks that appeared similar to TTIP. On 15 April 2019, the negotiations were declared "obsolete and no longer relevant" by the European Commission.

The reports on the past negotiations and the contents of the negotiated TTIP proposals are classified from the public, and can be accessed only by authorised persons. Multiple leaks of proposed TTIP contents into the public caused controversy.

The European Commission says that the TTIP would have boosted the EU's economy by €120 billion, the US economy by €90 billion and the rest of the world by €100 billion. According to Anu Bradford, law professor at Columbia Law School, and Thomas J. Bollyky of the Council on Foreign Relations, TTIP aims to "liberalise one-third of global trade" and could create millions of new jobs. A '' Guardian'' article by Dean Baker of the US thinktank Center for Economic and Policy Research argued that the economic benefits per household would be relatively small. According to a European Parliament report, impacts on labour conditions range from job gains to job losses, depending on economic model and assumptions used for predictions.Susanne Kraatz
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Labour
European Parliament.

The proposed agreement had been criticized and opposed by some unions, charities, NGOs and environmentalists, particularly in Europe.Stuart Jeffries
What is TTIP and why should we be angry about it?
''The Guardian''. Published on 3 August 2015. ''The Independent'' describes common criticisms of TTIP as "reducing the regulatory barriers to trade for big business, things like food safety law, environmental legislation, banking regulations and the sovereign powers of individual nations", or more critically as an "assault on European and US societies by transnational corporations". ''The Guardian'' noted the criticism of TTIP's "undemocratic nature of the closed-door talks", "influence of powerful lobbyists", TTIP's potential ability to "undermine the democratic authority of local government",Tim Smedley
TTIP: what does the transatlantic trade deal mean for renewable energy?
''The Guardian''. 5 August 2015. and described it as "the most controversial trade deal the EU has ever negotiated". German economist Max Otte argued that by putting European workers into direct competition with Americans, TTIP would negatively impact the European social models. An EU direct democracy mechanism, the European Citizens' Initiative, which enables EU citizens to call directly on the European Commission to propose a legal act, acquired over 3.2 million signatures against TTIP and CETA within a year.

Background

Economic barriers between the EU and the United States are relatively low, not only due to long-standing membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) but also recent agreements such as the EU–US Open Skies Agreement and work by the Transatlantic Economic Council. The European Commission claims that passage of a trans-Atlantic trade pact could boost overall trade between the respective blocs by as much as 50%. Economic gains from a Trade Treaty were predicted in the joint report issued by the White House and the European Commission.

Some form of Transatlantic Free Trade Area had been proposed in the 1990s and later in 2006 by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in reaction to the collapse of the Doha world trade talks. However, protectionism on both sides may be a barrier to any future agreement. It was first initiated in 1990, when, shortly after the end of the Cold War, with the world no longer divided into two blocs, the European Community (12 countries) and the US signed a "Transatlantic Declaration". This called for the continued existence of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as well as for yearly summits, biannual meetings between ministers of State, and more frequent encounters between political figures and senior officials.

Subsequent initiatives taken by the European deciders and the US government included: in 1995, the creation of a pressure group of business people, the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) by public authorities on both sides of the Atlantic; in 1998, the creation of an advisory committee, the Transatlantic Economic Partnership; in 2007, the creation of the Transatlantic Economic Council, in which representatives from firms operating on both sides of the Atlantic meet to advise the European Commission and the US government – and finally, in 2011, the creation of a group of high-level experts whose conclusions, submitted on 11 February 2013, recommended the launching of negotiations for a wide-ranging free-trade agreement. On 12 February 2013, President Barack Obama called in his annual State of the Union address for such an agreement. The following day, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso announced that talks would take place to negotiate the agreement.

The United States and European Union together represent 60% of global GDP, 33% of world trade in goods and 42% of world trade in services. There are a number of trade conflicts between the two powers, but both depend on the other's economic market and disputes only affect 2% of total trade. A free trade area between the two would represent potentially the largest regional free-trade agreement in history, covering 46% of world GDP.

The United States investment in the European Union is three times greater than US investment in the entire continent of Asia and EU investment in the United States is eight times that of European Union investment in India and China combined. Intra-company transfers are estimated to constitute a third of all transatlantic trade. The United States and European Union are the largest trading partners of most other countries in the world and account for a third of world trade flows. Given the already low tariff barriers (under 3%), to make the deal a success the aim is to remove non-tariff barriers.

Proposed contents

Documents released by the European Commission in July 2014 group the topics under discussion into three broad areas: Market access; Specific regulation; and broader rules and principles and modes of co-operation.State of Play of TTIP negotiations ahead of the 6th round of negotiations
European Commission DG Trade, 11 July 2014
European Commission DG Trade<
List of lead negotiators for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
Office of the United States Trade Representative

The EU negotiating mandate as of June 2013 gave a fuller view of what the Council of the European Union ( Foreign Affairs) has told its negotiators to try to achieve for each section. No corresponding US text is available, but the American side has released a public statement setting out its objectives and the potential benefits it foresees.

The secret contents of the first concrete American proposal on tariff reduction, and an EU counterproposal, which was leaked to Correctiv in February 2016, suggest 87.5% to 97% of all tariffs would be cut to zero.

Market access

TTIP includes chapters on market access for goods and services that aim to remove "custom duties on goods and restrictions on services, gaining better access to public markets, and making it easier to invest".The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) explained
European Commission DG Trade, 8 May 2014 The goods part includes rules on market access for goods, agriculture and processed agricultural products, and rules of origin.

Services and leaked text

For "Trade in Services, Investment and E-commerce", a draft text dated 7 July 2013 was leaked by the German newspaper, '' Die Zeit'' in March 2014. The leaked text contains seven chapters. In Chapter 1, Article 1 states the overall objective of "a better climate for the development of trade and investment", particularly the "liberalisation of investment and cooperation on e-commerce".

Chapter II, Article 3 to Article 18 contains general principles for investment. Article 14 contains proposed rules that forbid governments to "directly or indirectly nationalise, expropriate" unless it is for a public purpose, under due process of law, on a non-discriminatory basis, with compensation. Article 14(2) defines the necessary compensation as being "fair market value of the investment at the time immediately before the expropriation or the impending expropriation became public knowledge plus interest at a commercial rate established on a market basis".

Chapter III, Articles 19 to 23 contains rules on cross border supply of services.

Chapter IV, Articles 24 to 28 would allow free movement of business managers, and other employees of a corporation, for temporary work purposes among all countries party to the agreement. Article 1(2) makes it clear, however, that no more general free movement of workers and citizens is allowed.

Chapter V contains eight sections with particular rules for different economic sectors. Section I, articles 29 to 31, set out principles that states must follow in licensing private corporations, and state that requirements that are not proportionate to a reviewable public policy objective are contrary to the treaty. Section II contains general provisions. Section III covers computer services. Section IV, articles 35 to 39, cover liberalisation of postal services. Section V, articles 40 to 50, apply to electronic communications networks and services (including telecommunications) and mandate competitive markets, absence of cross-subsidies, subject to defined exceptions including in article 46 a right (but not a requirement) for countries to provide universal service.

Section VI of chapter V covers Financial Services, in articles 51 to 59. It limits the laws that governments can pass to regulate or publicly run insurance and banking. Any regulations that do not fall within the Treaty's terms and objectives would be unlawful. Legitimate reasons for regulation include, in article 52, "the protection of investors, depositors, policy-holders or persons to whom a fiduciary duty is owed by a financial service supplier; (b) ensuring the integrity and stability of a Party's financial system". However article 52(2) states "measures shall not be more burdensome than necessary to achieve their aim", and the Treaty does not include any further reasons to allow regulation. Section VII covers international maritime transport and section VIII covers air transport.

The Annex on " Investors-state dispute settlement" proposed to allow corporations to bring actions against governments for breach of its rights. The European Commission launched a public consultation after the draft text was leaked, which led to a number of changes. However, an updated proposed text had yet to be made publicly available. In September 2015, the Commission proposed an "Investment Court System" to replace the ISDS clauses, with the scope for investor challenge much reduced and with "highly skilled judges" rather than arbitrators used to determine cases.

Industry-specific regulation

"Improved regulatory coherence and cooperation by dismantling unnecessary regulatory barriers such as bureaucratic duplication of effort".

Specific heads for discussion include:
* Horizontal chapters:
** Regulatory coherence
** Technical barriers to trade
* Specific sectoral agreements:
** Textiles
** Chemicals
** Pharmaceuticals
** Cosmetics
** Medical devices
** Cars
** Electronics and information technology
** Machinery and engineering
** Pesticides
** Sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS)—i.e., barriers to trade in food and agricultural products

Broader rules and principles and modes of co-operation

"Improved cooperation when it comes to setting international standards".

Specific heads for discussion include:
* Energy and raw materials
* Trade and Sustainable Development / Labour and Environment
* Public procurement
* Intellectual property
** Geographical indications
* Competition policy: antitrust and mergers
** Treatment of state-owned or subsidised companies vis-a-vis private companies
* Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
* Trade remedies: e.g., anti-dumping practices
* Customs and Trade Facilitation

Implementation

* Dispute settlement (between the parties, not investor-state dispute settlement)

Negotiations

Procedure

The TTIP Agreement texts are being developed by 24 joint EU-US working groups, each considering a separate aspect of the agreement. Development typically progresses through a number of phases. Broad ''position paper''s are first exchanged, introducing each side's aims and ambitions for each aspect. These are followed by ''textual proposals'' from each side, accompanied (in areas such as tariffs, and market access) by each side's "initial offer." These negotiations and draft documents can evolve (change) through the various stages of their development. When both sides are ready, a ''consolidated text'' is prepared, with remaining differences for discussion expressed in square brackets. These texts are then provisionally closed topic by topic as a working consensus is reached. However the agreement is negotiated as a whole, so no topic's text is finalised until full consensus is reached.

Negotiation rounds

Negotiations are held in week-long cycles alternating between Brussels and the USA. The negotiators were hoping to conclude their work by the end of 2016.

* The 1st round of negotiations: 7–12 July 2013 in Washington DC
* The 2nd round of negotiations: 11–15 November 2013 in Brussels
* The 3rd round of negotiations: 16–21 December 2013 in Washington DC
* The 4th round of negotiations: 10–14 March 2014 in Brussels
* The 5th round of negotiations: 19–23 May 2014 in Arlington, Virginia
* The 6th round of negotiations: 13–18 July 2014 in Brussels
* The 7th round of negotiations: 29 September – 3 October 2014 in Chevy Chase, Maryland
* The 8th round of negotiations: 2–6 February 2015 in Brussels
* The 9th round of negotiations: 20–24 April 2015 in New York
* The 10th round of negotiations: 13–17 July 2015 in Brussels
* The 11th round of negotiations: 19–23 October 2015 in Miami
* The 12th round of negotiations: 22–26 February 2016 in Brussels
* The 13th round of negotiations: 25–29 April 2016 in New York
* The 14th round of negotiations: 11–15 July 2016 in Brussels
* The 15th round of negotiations: 3–7 October 2016 in New York

Confidentiality measures

Only a few people can access the documents known as "consolidated texts", the drafts containing the most recent results of the negotiations. On the European side, authorised readers include the European Commission negotiators (most of them from the Directorate-General for Trade), MEPs and European Union members' MPs.MPs can view TTIP files – but take only pencil and paper with them
The Guardian, 18 February 2016 Upon the insistence of the US, the documents are not transmitted any more as electronic or even printed documents.
They are only available in secure rooms at the European Commission HQ in Brussels, in a number of US embassies, and at the offices of member states' trade ministries. In all these secured rooms phones or other types of scanning device are forbidden. Blank sheets of paper, marked with the reader's names, are provided on which visitors can jot down their notes.
On the US side, the procedure is similar: only Senators and USTR negotiators may access the documents and must comply with similar conditions. The US side has insisted on the same security arrangements for the drafts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership proposal.

Hurdles

The negotiations were planned to be finalized by the end of 2014, but according to economist Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, at least another four or five years of negotiations remained at the end of that year.Philip Blenkinsop
EU-U.S. trade deal seems distant dream after early optimism
Reuters. 16 June 2015. In November 2014 the Bulgarian government announced that it will not ratify the agreement unless the United States lifted visa requirements for Bulgarian citizens.

German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that free trade talks between the European Union and the United States have failed, citing a lack of progress on any of the major sections of the long-running negotiations. "In my opinion the negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it" the German broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen quoted the minister, according to a written transcript of an interview aired on 28 August 2016. "heyhave failed because we Europeans did not want to subject ourselves to American demands."

Negotiation progress

Negotiation progress as of 27 April 2016:

Ratification

The twenty-seven European Union-member governments will have to approve of the partnership, via unanimous voting under TFEU Articles 207 and 218, on the negotiated agreement in the Council of the European Union, at which point the European Parliament will also be asked for its endorsement. The European Parliament is empowered to approve or reject the agreement. In case the Council of the European Union, following a proposal from the European Commission, designates TTIP to be a "mixed agreement", approval from all Parliaments of the EU Member States in accordance with individual constitutional procedures is necessary before the agreement can enter into force. In the United States, both houses of the Congress will have to pass the agreement for it to be ratified.

Proposed benefits

TTIP aims for a formal agreement that would "liberalize one-third of global trade" and, proponents argue, will create millions of new paid jobs. "With tariffs between the United States and the European Union already low, the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research estimates that 80 percent of the potential economic gains from the TTIP agreement depend on reducing the conflicts of duplication between EU and US rules on those and other regulatory issues, ranging from food safety to automobile parts." A successful strategy (according to Thomas Bollyky at the Council on Foreign Relations and Anu Bradford of Columbia Law School) will focus on business sectors for which transatlantic trade laws and local regulations can often overlap, e.g., pharmaceutical, agricultural, and financial trading. This will ensure that the United States and Europe remain "standard makers, rather than standard takers", in the global economy, subsequently ensuring that producers worldwide continue to gravitate toward joint US-EU standards.

In March 2013, an economic assessment by the European Centre for Economic Policy Research estimates that such a comprehensive agreement would result in GDP growth of 68–119 billion euros for the European Union by 2027 and GDP growth of 50–95 billion euros (about 53.5–101 billion US dollars) in the United States in the same time frame. The 2013 report also estimates that a limited agreement focused only on tariffs would yield EU GDP growth of 24 billion euros by 2027 and growth of 9 billion euros in the United States. If shared equally among the affected people, the most optimistic GDP growth estimates would translate into "additional annual disposable income for a family of four" of "545 euros in the EU" and "655 euros in the US", respectively.

In a ''Wall Street Journal'' article, the CEO of Siemens AG (with its workforce located 70% in Europe and 30% in the United States) claimed that the TTIP would strengthen United States and EU global competitiveness by reducing trade barriers, by improving intellectual property protections, and by establishing new international "rules of the road".

The European Commission says that the TTIP would boost the EU's economy by €120 billion, the US economy by €90 billion and the rest of the world by €100 billion. Talks began in July 2013 and reached the third round of negotiations by the end of that year.

American economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research observed that with conventional trade barriers between the US and the EU already low, the deal would focus on non-conventional barriers, such as overriding national regulations on fracking, GMOs, and finance, but also tightening laws on copyright. He goes on to assert that, with less ambitious projections, the economic benefits per household are unimpressive: "If we apply the projected income gain of 0.21% to the projected median personal income in 2027, it comes to a bit more than $50 a year. That's a little less than 15 cents a day. Don't spend it all in one place".The Guardian (15 July 2013)
The US-EU trade deal: Don't buy the hype
Retrieved 24 August 2013.

A 2018 paper by KU Leuven economists estimated that a "deep" free-trade agreement, such as TTIP, between the United States and the European Union would increase EU GDP by 1.3% and US GDP by 0.7%. These gains would primarily be the result of reductions in Non-tariff barriers to trade.

Criticism and opposition

Secrecy of content and negotiations

The content of the drafts of agreement, as well as the reports on negotiation rounds, are classified from the public, an arrangement that ''The Independent'' criticised as "secretive and undemocratic". As noted above, elected representatives may only view the texts in a secure "reading room" in Brussels, to avoid any further leaks of information about TTIP negotiations into the public domain.

To answer the criticism, and months after their leaks by Greenpeace, the European Commission has made negotiation documents public, including all EU proposals in the regulatory and rules components of the agreement. The Trade Commissioner has described the negotiations as "the most transparent trade talks ever conducted by the EU".

Possible negative impacts

Politics, economy and society

''The Guardian'' described TTIP as "the most controversial trade deal the EU has ever negotiated". TTIP negotiations are criticized and opposed by some unions, charities, NGOs and environmentalists, particularly in Europe. ''The Independent'' summarizes the negative impact of TTIP as "reducing the regulatory barriers to trade for big business, things like food safety law, environmental legislation, banking regulations and the sovereign powers of individual nations",Lee William
What is TTIP? And six reasons why the answer should scare you
''The Independent''. 6 October 2015. or more critically as an "assault on European and US societies by transnational corporations". German economist Max Otte stated that the proposed (ISDS) court of arbitration and protection of foreign investment would mean a "complete dis-empowerment of politics"TTIP: "Völlige Entmachtung der Politik"
3sat. Published on 8 April 2016. and that, regarding labour economics, free trade agreements typically enforce lower standards and that TTIP would put European workers into direct competition with Americans (and in effect because of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexicans), which would impact European social models. Otte also concluded: "We really don't want the social system of these countries nited States and Mexicohere n Europe"

An October 2014 study by Jeronim Capaldo of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University indicates that there will be losses in terms of net exports, net losses in terms of GDP, loss of labour income, job losses, reduction of the labour share, loss of government revenue and higher financial instability among European countries.

Labour standards, workers' rights and job security

Anti-poverty group Global Justice Now asserts that TTIP would undermine job security as well as current minimum labour standards agreed in the EU. British Labour Party politician John McDonnell, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, has described TTIP as resulting in a huge transfer of powers to Brussels and corporate interests that will bring about a form of "modern-day serfdom". According to a European Parliament report, impacts on labour conditions range from job gains to job losses, depending on economic model and assumptions used for predictions.

In spite of a study by the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research (on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economics) claiming that up to 400,000 jobs could be created in the EU by TTIP, Stefan Körzell, national board member of the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) has said "Whether TTIP can create jobs, and 'how many' and 'where' is unclear. Previous studies, ranging from those conducted by the European Commission across to the expertise of the Ifo Institute, fluctuate between optimism and very low expectations... Consideration of the negative consequences trade agreements can have, if environmental or labour standards are ignored, is often omitted. As of August 2015, the US had ratified two (prohibitions of child labour and slavery) of the eight ILO core labour standards."

Democracy and national sovereignty, foreign investor protection

Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is an instrument that allows an investor to bring a case directly against the country hosting its investment, without the intervention of the government of the investor's country of origin. From the late 1980s, certain trade treaties have included provisions for ISDS that allow foreign investors who claim to have been disadvantaged by actions of a signatory state, to sue that state for damages in a tribunal of arbitration. More recently such claims have increased in number and value, and some states have become increasingly resistant to such clauses.

Critics of TTIP say that "ISDS provisions undermine the power of national governments to act in the interests of their citizens", that "TTIP could even undermine the democratic authority of local government", and that it threatens democracy. France and Germany have said that they want access to investor-state dispute settlement removed from the TTIP treaty.Claire Provost and Matt Kennard
The obscure legal system that lets corporations sue countries
''The Guardian''. 10 June 2015 In December 2013, a coalition of over 200 environmentalists, labor unions and consumer advocacy organizations on both sides of the Atlantic sent a letter to the USTR and European Commission demanding the investor-state dispute settlement be dropped from the trade talks, claiming that ISDS was "a one-way street by which corporations can challenge government policies, but neither governments nor individuals are granted any comparable rights to hold corporations accountable". Some point out the "potential for abuse" that may be inherent in the trade agreement due to its clauses relating to investor protection. A recent study shows that investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) indeed generates strikingly large and consistent opposition to the trade agreement and this effect of dispute settlement characteristic cuts across individuals’ key attributes, including skill levels, information, and national sentiment, which have been viewed as key determinants of trade attitudes.

In December 2013, Martti Koskenniemi, Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki, warned that the planned foreign investor protection scheme within the treaty, similar to World Bank Group's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), would endanger the sovereignty of the signatory states by allowing for a small circle of legal experts sitting in a foreign court of arbitration an unprecedented power to interpret and void the signatory states' legislation.

Faced with such broad and vociferous criticism, ISDS was abandoned in September 2015; in its place, the European Commission proposed an Investment Court System (ICS). Not long afterwards, ICS was declared illegal by the German Association of Magistrates, though the commission dismissed the magistrates' judgement as based on a misunderstanding. For its part, the United States wants ISDS reinstated.

In February 2016, Labour (UK) leader Jeremy Corbyn said that human rights should be part of TTIP,
describing TTIP as a threat to national sovereignty, workers, consumers, health and the environment.

Public health and environment

According to a report in ''The Guardian'', TTIP draft leaked in 2016 shows "irreconcilable" differences between EU and the US in some areas, with the US demanding that EU compromise its "environmental, consumer protection and public health standards".Arthur Neslen
Leaked TTIP documents cast doubt on EU-US trade deal
''The Guardian''. 1 May 2016.

= Health care

=

British unions such as Unite and the TUC have opposed TTIP on the grounds that it would undermine the National Health Service and allows for the further privatisation of public services. A Unite spokesperson described TTIP as "about deregulation and a race to the bottom on standards. Unison has fought and won on bringing services back into the public sector. ... We cannot allow TTIP to threaten those successes."

Former Foreign Secretary David Owen said that TTIP would have a significant negative impact on the UK's National Health Service because the Service would be subject to increased competition under the TTIP regime.NHS would be 'completely unrecognisable' within years if UK remains inside the EU
K. McCann, The Daily Telegraph, 6 April 2016

Former UK prime minister David Cameron said that critics of free-trade should not use the National Health Service (NHS) to take people's attention away, and honestly speak about trade deals. UK's Department of Business, Innovation and Skills said that TTIP provided adequate protection for UK's NHS.

Assistant General Secretary of Unite Gail Cartmail said that TTIP was a real and serious threat to the NHS, adding that the threat would not be neutralised unless David Cameron gave a cast-iron guarantee that he would exclude the NHS from TTIP.

= Consumer protection and food safety

=

Documents released in May 2015 showed that US negotiators had pressured the EU over proposed pesticide criteria. A number of pesticides containing endocrine disrupting chemicals were forbidden in draft EU criteria. On 2 May 2013, US negotiators insisted the EU drop the criteria. They stated that a risk-based approach should be taken on regulation. Later the same day Catherine Day (Secretary-General of the European Commission) wrote to Karl Falkenberg ( Director General for the Environment) asking for these criteria to be removed. , 82 pesticides used in the US were banned in Europe and US animal welfare standards are generally lower than those in Europe.

A columnist in ''The Guardian'' stated that food safety in the EU might be compromised because of low or different standards in US food regulations, if currently EU-banned food were allowed to be imported.Phillip Inman
Prospect of TTIP already undermining EU food standards, say campaigners
''The Guardian''. 18 October 2015. In June 2015, the BBC
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