TTIP negotiations continue in the shadows in both America and the EU and they enter a new and dangerous stage as existing legal barriers that would inhibit certain types of (harmful) trade are dismantled in favor of a new set of rules termed 'regulatory cooperation'.
It sounds collaborative, it is, but just not in the public interest.
What this really means is that decades of regulations passed by governments, legislated upon for public interest and safety reasons are being swept aside.
These new regulations that the public and journalists are barred from being a party to include the demolition of environmental protections, safety at work regulations, food safety and other laws designed to protect and defend public safety.
Any new regulations that EU states would want to impose in future are now facing considerable barriers and hurdles that could take years to negotiate and the system is clearly being designed to be onerous and just plain difficult to favor corporate interests above public interest.
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), whose raison d'être is exposing the power of corporate lobbying in the EU has recently published its latest report "Dangerous Regulatory Duet" which exposes how a new framework being implemented under regulatory cooperation through TTIP will allow bureaucrats and big business to attack the public interest.
The report highlights some examples of how big business and the governments of America and the EU have conspired to destroy these safeguards.
Here are some excerpts from this lengthy and enlightening report:
These are just a few of the issues being raised not just by Corporate Europe Observatory but by pressure groups, petitions and activists, none of whom are being recognized as more representative of the people of Europe who are unanimously agreed on one thing - TTIP is a bad thing for the people of Europe.
This agreement undoubtedly has profound implications for hard won democratic rights all over continental Europe.
It comes to something when one has to rely on Wikileaks, whistleblowers and alternative news outlets to find out what is happening behind the closed doors of politicians, who can only be seen as corrupt in every sense of the word.
This treaty is unlikely to be passed in 2016 but after decades of work by the American administration and the unelected bureaucrats of the European Commission it has already raised some very serious questions by the public about where the power of the world really lies today.
Cleary, that is no longer at the ballot box but in boardrooms...
|