by A swedish kind of death
Thu Jan 16th, 2014 at 01:27:47 AM EST
The EU informs us that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership that is presently being negotiated under much secrecy will have positive results.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - Trade - European Commission
Independent research shows that TTIP could boost:- the EU's economy by €120 billion;
- the US economy by €90 billion;
- the rest of the world by €100 billion
That should be, according to Dean Baker:
Research by a pro-deal think tank shows that TTIP could in the best case scenario boost:
- the EU's economy by €120 billion;
- the US economy by €90 billion;
- the rest of the world by €100 billion
in the year 2027, in 2027 euros. However it also shows that the more likely scenario is about 50 USD per person and year.
The US-EU trade deal: don't buy the hype | Dean Baker | Comment is free | theguardian.comAs growth policy, this trade deal doesn't pass the laugh test, but that doesn't mean that it may not be very important to a number of special interests and, for this reason, bad news for most of the public. Since conventional barriers to trade between the US and EU are already very low, the focus of the deal will be on non-conventional barriers, meaning various regulatory practices.
front-paged by afew
So what can we expect? Per Dean Baker, we can expect industries to try to minimise regulation on fracking and GMOs, make regulation on financial services irreleveant, force regulation of internet providers to police internet content and enhance the power of patents in pharmaceuticals.
This is all reasonable to expect and fits the established pattern of making "trade" deals in order to puch through changes in package that lack support in parliaments. However, there is a new twist.
Regulation - none of our business? | Corporate Europe Observatory
Citizens' groups on both sides of the Atlantic have repeatedly pointed out that on many issues such as health, food safety, consumer, environmental and data protection, the public interest is at risk of being sidelined, and concerns are spreading like bush fire. For that reason, revealing a massive all-in-one package of deregulation, with protection levels driven down to meet the other party's requirements, could be politically dangerous for the negotiators as it could lead to a rejection of the whole deal by citizens and even parliaments.
But that too has a solution.
Regulation - none of our business? | Corporate Europe Observatory
The business lobbies on both sides of the Atlantic have been painfully aware of the political complications, so for more than a year now, they have lobbied to convince negotiators about the need for long-term "regulatory cooperation" with new institutions and procedures that will allow them to capture regulatory decision-making more effectively and discreetly in the future.
While the US trade authorities have negotiated very ambitious agreements on regulatory cooperation in the past, the position of the EU in general and the Commission in particular has not been clear, including because of some initial reservations to the proposals from business groups. However, a leaked document now shows that it has been won over completely. The document portrays a complicated system which will enable decisions to be made with no real public oversight or engagement, and with all doors wide open to business lobbying. Business will be involved from the beginning of the process, well before any public and democratic debate takes place, and will have excellent opportunities to ditch important initiatives to improve our food standards or protect consumers. Essentially, the proposal would allow business lobbyists to "co-write legislation".
So what it looks like is that instead of a package deal on the issues that all parliaments must pass - or else! - we will get get a package deal on the structures. Or a combination thereof. Parliments must still of course pass it - or else!
