MEPs joined together outside the sealed reading room for documents relating to the TTIP negotiations to demand transparency in this EU-US trade deal. Photo: greensefa / flickr CC.
Why bother about TTIP?
James Bruges considers: What is it? And why should Quakers be concerned?
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would give corporations an exclusive form of justice, enabling them to sue governments should their profits be threatened. It could:
• reduce social, environment and food-safety regulation;
• open up public services such as the NHS for privatisation;
• prevent government from returning them to the public sector;
• eliminate preferential treatment for local suppliers;
• weaken workers’ rights; and
• curtail the regulation of banks.
The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) has strongly condemned the TTIP.
