/ world today news/ According to 240 pages of confidential negotiating documents related to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which were leaked through “Greenpeace” in the Netherlands, the Obama administration applied pressure on the European Union to allow the import of meat treated with hormones and genetically modified foods.
This was to be done in exchange for an easing of US tariffs on imports of European cars.Critics of the TTIP argue that the partnership is nothing more than the bloated sidekick of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), insofar as it grants unlimited powers to multinational corporations to override national and supranational laws. This includes both the laws of each individual member state of the European Union (EU) and the regulations of the EU itself.
Some member states are increasingly critical of the TTIP’s implications for the EU’s 508 million people, whom greedy, corrupt and relatively unregulated American corporations see as potential consumers. After the disclosure of the TPTI documents, in an interview with the newspaper Sud Ouest, French Trade Minister Mathias Feckl said: “Europe offers a lot and we get too little in return. This is unacceptable.” Feckl adds that the TPTI in its current form is a bad deal. Feckl and other European politicians are concerned that Europe’s health and environment will be the first casualties if US corporations are allowed to trample existing European measures to protect natural resources, food safety and public health.
A number of French politicians, including Feckl and Prime Minister Manuel Valls, have warned that France could end its free trade talks with Washington because of the current TTIP problems and US intransigence.
No one supports TPTI more than Wall Street-installed Barack Obama. The reason Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have been so successful in challenging the status quo in their political parties is that the American public—right, left, and center—opposes Obama-backed free trade agreements. That part of society that opposes free trade agreements, namely the majority of Americans, has withdrawn its confidence in Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. This also applies to all the candidates of the Republican Party, including Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Jeb Bush, who have benefited from the financial support of mega-corporations sitting behind TPTI, such as “Goldman Sachs” and “Monsanto”.
Among the main targets of the US in its secret negotiations with the EU regarding TTIP are European consumer centers that protect half a billion European citizens from harmful chemicals and other substances in food and other products. For example, the US has nothing against lead and 1,296 other known carcinogens being put into cosmetics. The EU bans the use of animals for cosmetics testing, but the US does not. The fact that the leaked documents reveal that companies in the field of the chemical industry participated as consultants in the TPTI negotiations is indicative.
Obama, a pawn in the hands of Wall Street, has warned the UK that if it votes to leave the EU in the upcoming referendum, it will be at the back of the queue for negotiations on a separate free trade deal with the US. The US president made similar threats to Scotland before its independence referendum in 2014.
The British are rightly concerned that the opening of an opportunity for American companies to provide health services in Britain could lead to the privatization of the National Health Service. Similar plans to give free access to US companies in education and water supply in Britain could lead to higher fees in both sectors. National healthcare systems across the EU at risk of privatization if US multinationals move in and start overcharging for healthcare services and prescription drugs. Americans saw this confirmed with Obamacare, which introduced equal access to health care while increasing patient co-payments.
The publication of the TPTI documents portends big problems for German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well. Highlighting the fact that America is pressuring Europe in the PTI negotiations came a week after Merkel, standing shoulder to shoulder with Obama, spoke favorably of the PTI at an international trade fair in Hanover. The substance of the documents related to the TPTI shows that Merkel is something like America’s favorite poodle, and much more docile than she appeared until now.
Before those 240 pages became public, lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic were allowed to read the trade pact documents in special secure rooms with the stipulation that jackets, briefcases, phones and other types of electronic devices would be handed over to guards who would monitor legislators during the maximum allowable reading time of two hours. Lawmakers were also prohibited from talking about the contents of these documents. The restriction on commenting on controversial documents affecting the world’s elite has become a standard for the exercise of power not only on both sides of the Atlantic, but around the world.
Authorities in European countries that oppose shale gas extraction technology (“fracking”) by American companies may find themselves powerless to stop the process within the framework of the TPTI. People in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Belgium may find themselves in the same situation as people in Pennsylvania, where fountains are spewing flames.
The resistance against TPTI unites not only left and right European political leaders. The transatlantic partnership is not well received by American politicians who are aware of the potential dangers it creates. For example, in some states there are clauses established by law to give priority to American companies in conducting public procurement for the supply of goods and services. If the TPTI is imposed, these clauses would be dropped, thus allowing Romanian or Polish contractors, for example, to compete for a dam project in Idaho or a contract to build a bridge in Maine. This perspective is not very popular among small and medium-sized American companies, nor among organizations in the field of health, occupational safety and environmental protection in the States. Even the US Supreme Court may find itself with its hands tied in the face of TPTI supremacy.
Those who disclosed the documents related to TPTI saw the dangers that the treaty poses for both Europeans and Americans. In the spirit of the trend to release all classified documents, regardless of the letter of the law, those who made the material public may finally drive a stake through the heart of the partnership. Let’s hope the same will happen with the equally harmful TTP.
Source: Strategic Culture
Translation: Desislava Pateva
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