TTIP trade deal will cause more unemployment

This video says about itself:

29 August 2014

Alarm bells on ISDS are ringing this loud for a reason: ISDS allows foreign firms to bypass domestic courts and sue governments (hence citizens, through taxes) directly in private trade tribunals if they feel that a government’s action can unfairly diminish future returns on their investments.

Until recently, ISDS provisions mostly featured in bilateral state-to-state investment treaties, and were designed to offer investors protection from actions by governments in countries with legal systems perceived to be poorly developed.

The European Commission has never finalised a trade agreement between the EU and third countries with ISDS. Currently 19 out of 28 EU member states, representing 93% of the EU economy, do not have ISDS provisions with the US. The nine that do only cover 7% of the EU’s GDP.

To date there are nine known claims in the EU-US relationship, all led by US investors. The majority of the claims involve investment in the primary sector: oil, gas and mining.

In its consultation the European Commission is trying to make ISDS look a bit more acceptable by changing a few things here and there as to how proceedings would works. In our submission we point out why none of these changes addresses any of the fundamental flaws of the system.

By Peter Lazenby in Britain:

TTIP trade pact ‘will cost Europe 600,000 jobs’

Saturday 8th November 2014

US academics expose human and economic costs of extremist pro-capital deal

TTIP, the secret trade deal being negotiated by Brussels and Washington, will cost Europe 600,000 jobs, according to US academics.

In Britain the deal will also cut wages by £3,300 and transfer seven per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) from labour to capital.

The research was carried out at Tufts University, US, and released in Europe by the World Development Movement.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is being is backed by David Cameron as a necessary boost to the British economy, but the paper by Jeronim Capaldo, senior researcher at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts, predicts the deal will mean job losses, lower growth, lower wages and a more unstable economy.

It would mean greater European exposure to fluctuations in the US economy, more austerity, further forcing-down of wages, lower tax take, higher government deficits, spiralling asset prices and exacerbation of social tensions.

Negotiations on TTIP have prompted strong opposition — more than a thousand actions took place across Europe on Saturday October 11, including a thousand people protesting in London’s Parliament Square and dropping a banner across the length of Westminster Bridge.

In little over a month, more than 800,000 people across Europe have signed a petition calling for the deal to be scrapped.

Researcher Mr Capaldo said: “According to our study, TTIP will exacerbate, not solve, Europe’s economic problems — increasing unemployment, worsening inequality, reducing workers’ purchasing power, undermining the dynamism of intra-EU trade, and exposing European countries to asset bubbles and financial contagion from the United States.

“At this fragile time in Europe’s economic recovery, TTIP looks like a mistake.”

Guy Taylor, trade justice campaigner at the World Development Movement said: “TTIP falls down even on its own terms, as it’s supposed to bolster growth in the EU but in fact it will result in fewer jobs and lower wages.

“The research shows that some will actually benefit — profits for a small number of corporations grow at the expense of ordinary workers. This is truly a deal for the 1 per cent, and we have to stop it.”

A TORY councillor was accused of sabotaging an anti-TTIP campaign yesterday by taking down dozens of “for sale” style signs protesting against the unpopular trade deal overnight: here.

UNITE general secretary Len McCluskey hit out at David Cameron yesterday after he bragged that he could easily bat down “very weak” arguments against pro-privatisation treaty TTIP: here.

The stitch-up of the shady EU-US trade deal that would see big business swallow public services can still be stopped, a Green MEP insisted yesterday. Jean Lambert joined trade union leaders to raise the alarm over the impact of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on services and jobs: here.

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