A new briefing – How TTIP undermines food safety and animal welfare – from Friends of the Earth Europe, Compassion in World Farming, IATP, Grain and the Center for Food Safety, says the TransAtlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade deal between the US and Europe is likely to restrict efforts to build healthier, fairer and more sustainable food systems on both sides of the Atlantic. Read more in the Eating Better blog.
TTIP is more than just a trade deal. It is an unprecedented transfer of power from democratically elected governments to trans-national corporations. For the first time, on a grand scale, corporations would be able to sue governments if they make public policy decisions which could harm their profits in the future.
The Transnational Institute has published a briefing paper – Licensed to grab – that sets out the real consequences of international investment rules that are already in place. Specifically the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause present in many of trade treaties give investors far-reaching protection, curtailing, or threatening to curtail, governments’ ability to regulate for progressive agrarian and agricultural policies. As a consequence the notion of land as a commodity is reinforced, hindering achievement of democratic land access and control and the reversal of abusive land deals. Affected are countries in the Global South as well as the Global North.
The movement to oppose TTIP is growing in many countries and in Scotland the ‘Scotland Against TTIP’ coalition will be launched on 11 April. Nourish is supporting this coalition and for more information and registration for the launch event click here.
There is also the online petition Stop TTIP which you can sign.