EU is making the secret TTIP as Secretive as the TPP

[tay]

The European Commission is making the secret Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade deal even more secret, introducing a new rule that means politicians can only view the text in a secure 'reading room' in Brussels.


An investigation by German news site Correct!v has revealed that the Commission is cracking down on TTIP security following a series of leaks, purportedly by EU member states who had accessed information on the deal electronically.


And so the Brussels 'reading room' appears to be the solution, where national and EU representatives will have to go if they want to find out what's happening to the TTIP text.


It's not just TTIP that is taking such extreme measures. The US-Asia equivalent, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), has a similar super-secure reading room.


Robert Smith, host of the Planet Money podcast on NPR, said: "In Washington DC they love secrecy, but even by Washington standards this amazed me.


"In the basement of the US capitol, there is a room, a locked soundproof room, and the only people allowed in this room are US senators, and they can't bring their assistants, they can't bring their phones, they can't even take notes in there.


"Inside this room is not the codes for our nuclear weapons, it's not CIA files, it's not the documents that tell us an alien landed in Roswell. No, in this room is the text of a trade deal."


Smith's astonishment at the extent of the security is shared by European politicians about the Brussels reading room.


Leading German politician Norbert Lammert told Correct!v: "I do not agree with this decision. Confidentiality is also possible transmission by electronic means."




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TTIP controversy: Secret trade deal can only be read in secure 'reading room' in Brussels - Europe - World - The Independent

 

[taxslave]

There is some sense to this conspiracy theorists aside. Billions can be made with advance notice of what is happening. This just helps level the playing field.

 

[coldstream]

Everyone should be very concerned with the TransAtlantic and TransPacific Trade Deals.

They are marketed as harbingers of an era of prosperity for all. But since the Free Market era descended on us in the early 70s... they have produced nothing but deindustrialization, polarization of wealth, elimination of the Middle Class, bankrupted governments, austerity, dissolution of the secure and fairly payed workplace, destabilization of markets and currencies, sell offs of public assets. Not one of their promises have ever been met.

They are done soley for the benefit of the Global Trading and Financial Oligarchy. They will usher in an era of unfettered Free Market Capitalism which careen from crisis to crisis.. shock to shock., making a few unimaginably rich, while impoverishing and marginalizing billions.

It intends to destroy the sovereign nation state.. replacing it with its 'supranational' organizations.. the WTO, the Treaty administrations, the IMF, the World Bank. It will subsume currencies and public assets.. into a murky world of interconnected capital owership.. which owe loyalty to no nation, and no system of ethics beyond that of self enrichment.

It works through quislings, traitors, weaklings... who grovel before their edicts and crave their rewards of position and lucre for their faithful servitude.. our own pathetic Stephen Harper a prime example. It is fundamentally a slave regime.. and bitter opponent of economic democracy and responsibility.

It will ultimately collapse into economic and social chaos... Depression.. World War. There is nothing else that come from it.

 

[AnnaG]

.......
It will ultimately collapse finally into chaos... Depression.. World War. There is nothing else that come from it.

<--- wishful thinking.

But I agree somewhat with the rest of your speech. This kind of stuff simply furthers corporate governance and governments are simply lackeys to sate corporate wishes.

 

[tay]

Mr Corbyn has pledged to scrap the EU’s trade deal with the US. He joins a range of European politicians and campaigners in fighting against the partnership, which attempts to harmonise regulation between the two regions but also appears to weaken consumer protections and privilege companies.

The Labour leader has promised to stop the adoption of the deal if he is elected prime minister before it is completed. And he will also attempt to lead a rebellion in parliament, alongside dissident Tories and the Scottish nationalists.

Supporters of the deal argue that it is a necessary way of bringing US and EU regulations into line to allow companies to trade more easily.

But while talks on the deal have remained secret, campaigners have argued that the deal will pose a huge threat to the NHS, privacy, the environment and other issues.

Mr Corbyn's intervention comes just a day after the European Commission attempted to revive support for TTIP. President Jean-Claude Juncker has called for all 28 member states to publicly affirm their commitment to the deal, apparently frustrated by weakening support for the plan.

Mr Corbyn made reference to that increasing division by arguing that the French's discontent means the British shouldn't support it either.

"A few weeks ago the French President, Francois Hollande, said he would veto the deal as it stands and to become law any deal would have to be ratified by each member state," he said. "So today we give this pledge, as it stands, we too would reject TTIP – and veto it in Government."

"And there is a challenge to the Prime Minister, if it’s not good enough for France; it’s not good enough for Britain either."

He asked that David Cameron "make clear" that if Britain votes for remain he would "block any TTIP trade treaty that threatens our public services, our consumer and employment rights and that hands over power to giant corporations to override democratically elected governments".

It has since become a central part of the debate around the EU referendum. Remain supporters have argued that the trade deal is a central reason for staying in the EU, while the Leave side has argued that it shows the danger of such huge partnerships.

Mr Corbyn's commitment may prove controversial among some of his fellow campaigners on the Remain side. Barack Obama's intervention to tell the UK that it would be at the "back of the queue" for a trade deal has proved one of the more popular campaign points of the referendum, and campaigners have positioned the trade deal as a demonstration of one of the important reasons for staying in.

video

Jeremy Corbyn promises to kill TTIP, will work in parliament to stop trade deal | UK Politics | News | The Independent

 

[Blackleaf]

I think this is as good a reason as any to vote Leave.

Britain, like the other 27 Member States, has a power of veto which it can use against certain EU measures, including taxation.

Some politicians have been calling on David Cameron to use his veto to get the NHS out of TTIP. TTIP could force its privatisation. But I shan't hold my breath, as I don't think Cameron has used his veto at any point whatsoever in his six years as PM.

 

[tay]

Germany’s Vice Chancellor said in 14 rounds of talks neither side had agreed on a single common chapter out of the 27 being deliberated.

Sigmar Gabriel has said free trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States have failed, but “nobody is really admitting it”.

Talks over the so-called Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partner, also known as TTIP, have made little progress in recent years.

The 14th round of negotiations between American and EU officials took place in Brussels in July and was the third round in six months.

TTIP has failed – but no one is admitting it, says German Vice Chancellor | Europe | News | The Independent