The European Union and the USA have been negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) behind closed doors since 2013. Negotiators kept insisting that their secret talks would work in the best interest of the public and the environment. But since Greenpeace leaked the TTIP draft negotiating documents it became clearer than ever, that this trade agreement could become one of the most dangerous weapons in the hands of the fossil fuel industry in its effort to kill Climate Action for the 21st century.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been signed but not ratified and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations are in train. The former faces challenges in securing legislative ratification in the US and some other member states, buts its progress faces widespread, and growing, resistance in key European countries, with opposition coming from both within national bodies politic and wider civil societies. The success of both projects hangs in the balance. This short paper looks at the cases for and against both projects and analyses the political dynamics at play.
Last week, there was a bit of good news on the trade front: on July 8, tobacco giant Philip Morris lost its ridiculous case against Uruguay’s cigarette labeling laws. ISDS empowers companies to sue governments in private tribunals over measures that undermine their expected profits. It has become a lightning rod for controversy in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).