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| TTIP: ggiving multi-national corporations more power |
Sylvia Borren, Executive Director Greenpeace Netherlands noted:.
“These documents make clear the scale and scope of the trade citizens of the United States and the European Union are being asked to make in pursuit of corporate profits. It is time for the negotiations to stop, and the debate to begin.
Should we be able to act when we have reasonable grounds to believe our health and wellbeing is at risk, or must we wait until the damage is done?
Were our governments serious in Paris when they said they would do what was necessary to protect the planet, and keep climate change under 1.5 degrees?
Environmental protection should not be seen as a barrier to trade, but as a safeguard for our health, and the health of future generations.
We call on citizens, civil society, politicians and businesses to engage in this debate openly and without fear. We call on the negotiators to release the latest, complete text to facilitate that discussion, and we ask that the negotiations be stopped until these questions, and many more have been answered. Until we can fully engage in a debate about the standards we and our planet need and want”
The documents that Greenpeace Netherlands has released comprise about half of the draft text as of April 2016, prior to the start of the 13th round of TTIP negotiations between the EU and the US (New York, 25-29 April 2016).
As far as we know the final document will consist of 25 to 30 chapters and many extensive annexes. The EU Commission published an overview stating that they have now 17 consolidated texts. This means the documents released by Greenpeace Netherlands encompass 3/4 of the existing consolidated texts.[1]
Consolidated texts are those where the EU and US positions on issues are shown side by side.
This step in the negotiation process allows us to see the areas where the EU and US are close to agreement, and where compromises and concessions would still need to be made. Of the documents released by Greenpeace Netherlands, in total 248 pages, 13 chapters offer for the first time the position of the US.
To make sure the documents were not fake, the documents were studied by both Greenpeace Netherlands and Rechercheverbund NDR, WDR und Süddeutsche Zeitung, a renowned German investigative research partnership which analysed them and compared them to existing documents.
The Rechercheverbund, which consists of different German media outlets, has covered, amongst other big stories, the Snowden leaks and the recent Volkswagen emissions scandals.
First conclusions made following review of the report reveal that there are four aspects are of serious concern.
1) Long standing environmental protections appear to be dropped
2) Climate protection will be harder under TTIP
3) The end of the precautionary principle
4) Opening the door for corporate takeover
TTIP is really only about giving multi-national corporations more power and to slowly but surely dismantle European laws on Privacy, Pollution, GMO, Pesticides , Food additives, Healthcare, Insurance, Finance and the list goes on and on.
Let us keep in mind the EU is a market of more than 500 million people with the worlds no one GNP. Obviously a juicy fruit to pick, and eventually destro,y by our "treasured corporate friends" across the "big pond" .
Read more Greenpeace Netherlands releases TTIP documents | Greenpeace International
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