Can you take 10 mins to send this letter, or something very similar, to your MP? People have been asking MPs some of these questions and getting silly answers, which suggests we are hitting a nerve – so we need to keep on hitting it.
Please let us know if you have written, and to which MP.
NB: here’s lots more info about TTIP, to inform, entertain, but mostly horrify.
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Dear (MP)
I have these concerns and questions about the EU so-called ‘trade’ agreements and I would appreciate a response at your earliest convenience.
The US/EU TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) is of huge public concern as it is clearly for the benefit of transnational corporations while it threatens our health and safety standards, our public services (despite attempted ‘reassurances’), and our democracy and sovereignty.
Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and the Trade Commission’s latest version of this, Investment Court System (ICS) will give rights to transnational and foreign corporations to sue EU governments, thus threatening regulation in the EU and in the UK. The planned Regulatory Cooperation Body, by any name, will be supranational, assessing all regulation, existing and future, on criteria of ‘trade’ rather than social values, with big business input from both sides of the Atlantic from the earliest stages.
Of immediate concern is the EU/Canada CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement). It has many of the same components as TTIP and is in some aspects even worse eg 100% negative listing of services. It is very much a ‘back door’ for TTIP, both as a model for such deals and in allowing US corporations to utilise ISDS (ICS) against EU governments, including our own, via their Canadian subsidiaries.
Supposed economic ‘gains‘ for both TTIP and CETA , even according to the official studies, have been exposed as minimal and it is indicative that the European Commission no longer refers to them – so, no ‘jobs and growth‘ after all.
These trade agreements should be blocked and the UK government can do this in the European Council. Will you urge the Cameron government to do this?
In addition to these concerns about these agreements, I have these questions and requests about process:
- It appears from the UK parliamentary procedures that the UK has denied itself any veto with regard to trade deals, even though other member state parliaments have this power. Is this the case, and if so will you initiate action to change this?
- The problem remains that our MPs still have no access to key TTIP documents, whereas members of other EU parliaments do. Will you ask a parliamentary question on why UK MPs still have no access to key TTIP documents?
- In the CETA text we have no UK protection for Geographical Indicators (regional food names), whereas other member states do. Will you ask a PQ on why the UK government has failed to seek any GI protection in CETA and call on the UK government to block the completed CETA agreement on this basis?
- Even if CETA and TTIP are ‘mixed deals’ they would be ‘provisionally implemented’ by the Commission, with ISDS obligations legally in force from that point, before any parliamentary discussion here and there are no procedures to reverse this. This procedure, particularly combined with a lack of UK veto, makes the UK ratification process irrelevant. Will you call on the UK government to block TTIP and CETA in the EU Council, for this additional reason?
- There is no analysis of the 1600 page CETA text, as a basis for either the European Parliament or the UK parliament to ratify this agreement. It should therefore not be ratified. Will you call for CETA to be blocked in the Council for this reason also?
I look forward to your response
Yours ….
