NAFTA on Steroids

Three “Secret” Concurrent “Free Trade” Deals: Can the TPP, the TTIP and CETA be Stopped?

Global Research News Hour Episode 47

By Michael Welch, Margaret Flowers, and Stuart Trew

Global Research, October 19, 2016

17 December 2013

This edition of The Global Research News Hour was originally broadcast in December 2013:

I voted against CAFTA, never supported NAFTA, and will not support NAFTA-style trade agreements in the future. NAFTA’s shortcomings were evident when signed and we must now amend the agreement to fix them. While NAFTA gave broad rights to investors, it paid only lip service to the rights of labor and the importance of environmental protection.[1]  Presidential Candidate Senator Barack Obama, February 28, 2008

To boost American exports, support American jobs, and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership.  And tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.[2]  President Barack Obama, February 12, 2013

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Webster’s dictionary defines the term ‘Trojan Horse’ as follows:

“…someone or something intended to defeat or subvert from within usually by deceptive means.”[3]

The term has been applied by critics to any number of so-called free trade deals that Canada, the United States and other countries around the world are embracing.

In Canada, the Harper government recently extolled the virtues of opening up new markets for Canadian goods, services and investment in the European Union and Asia as critical to the nation’s prosperity. Hence, determined efforts to secure free trade deals with these regions through the Canadian – European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) respectively are hailed by the government and pundits alike as centrepieces of the Harper government’s agenda going into 2014.

Interesting that the details of these agreements are largely hidden from public scrutiny.

The TPP in particular, as noted by Global Research author Kevin Zeese, has been drafted with an unprecedented degree of secrecy.

The campaign ‘FLUSHTHETPP.org‘ claims that the gift horse that is increased trade and investment, conceals a corporate assault on food safety, the environment, worker rights, access to health care, and basically every facet of our lives as free citizens.

A recent release of the Intellectual Property Rights Chapter from Wikileaks confirmed the fears of trade liberalization critics that the reach of patents, copyrights, and trade secrets will be extended at the expense of consumer rights and safeguards.[4]

To quote Wikileaks editor in Chief Julian Assange:

“If instituted, the TPP’s IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.”[5]

The TPP secured third place among Project Censored’s most censored stories of 2012-2013. The Sonoma State University media research program describes the TPP as “an enforceable transfer of sovereignty from nations and their people to foreign corporations.”

Dr. Margaret Flowers is a congressional fellow with Physicians for a National Health Program and a pediatrician based in Baltimore, Maryland. She has written extensively on the topic of the TPP, and has championed efforts to stop it in its tracks. Dr. Flowers joins the Global Research News Hour in the fist half of the programme to describe the onerous aspects of this deal, update us on the recent twelve nation talks in Singapore, America’s ‘Fast-Track’ legislation, and the realistic prospects of grassroots people to bring an end to this deal.

CETA, likewise is cloaked in secrecy. Critics like Stuart Trew of the Council of Canadians argue the deal extends drug patents and makes community economic development initiatives such as ‘buy local’ policies subject to legal challenges under new procurement rules. Trew will fill out the second half of the programme with a comprehensive look at what we know about the CETA, and how that deal can be stopped.

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The Global Research News Hour, hosted by Michael Welch, airs on CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg Fridays at 1pm CDT. The programme is also broadcast weekly (Monday, 5-6pm ET) by the Progressive Radio Network in the US, and is available for download on the Global Research website.

Community Radio Stations carrying the Global Research News Hour:

CHLY 101.7fm in Nanaimo, B.C – Thursdays at 1pm PT

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Notes

1) Ohio Conference on Fair Trade, February 28, 2008, http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/OCFT_-PresPrimaryTradeQuestionnaire_Obama_022008.pdf
2) Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, Tuesday, February 12, 2013; Washington, DC; http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/12/president-barack-obamas-state-union-address
3) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trojan%20horse
4) Peter Sayer, Nov.14, 2013, “Leaked treaty draft shows US at loggerheads with Pacific states on copyright”; http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/internet/3489259/leaked-treaty-draft-shows-us-at-loggerheads-with-pacific-states-on-copyright/#ixzz2niYnuQil
5) ibid
6)http://www.projectcensored.org/3-trans-pacific-partnership-threatens-regime-corporate-global-governance/

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Michael Welch, Margaret Flowers, and Stuart Trew, Global Research, 2016

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SILENCE OF THE LEFT

regarding Euro-Austerity and T-TIP, by Michael Hudson

01/07/2016

 

By Michael Hudson

1. Media dismissal of Brexit and protests against Euro-austerity

The media in the United States have treated the British vote against remaining in the European Union (EU) as if it is populist “Trumpism,” an inarticulate right-wing vote out of ignorance at being left behind by the neoliberal economic growth policy. The fact that Donald Trump happened to be in Scotland to promote his golf course helped frame the U.S. story that depicts the Brexit vote as a “Trump vs. Hillary” psychodrama – populist anger and resentment vs. intelligent policy.

What is left out of this picture is that there is a sound logic to oppose membership in the EU. It is Nigel Farage’s slogan, “Take Back Control.”

The question is, from whom? Not only from “bureaucrats,” but from the pro-bank, anti-labor rules written into the eurozone’s Lisbon and Maastricht treaties.

The British tabloids opposed EU membership by depicting unelected Brussels bureaucrats as making laws binding on Britain. The argument was largely a nationalistic plea for “British laws to help the British people.”

The real problem is not merely that bureaucrats are making the laws, but the kind of laws they are making: pro-bank, anti-labor austerity. Tax and public spending policy has been taken out of the hands of national governments and turned over to the banking centers. They insist on austerity and scaling back pensions and social spending programs.

The Maastricht and Lisbon treaties – along with the German constitution –deprive the eurozone of having a central bank to spend money to revive the European economy. Instead of working to heal the economy from the debt deflation that has occurred since 2008, the European Central Bank (ECB) finances banks and obliges governments to save bondholders from loss instead of writing down bad debts.

To top matters, Brussels bureaucrats seem quite bendable to U.S. pressures to sign the T-TIP: the Obama Administration’s neoliberal Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. This is a corporatist program shifting regulatory policy into corporate hands, away from government: environmental policy, public health policy and food labeling for starters.

The Brussels bureaucracy has been hijacked not only by the banks, but by NATO. It pretends that there is a real danger of Russia mounting a military invasion of Europe – as if any country in the world today could mount a land war against another.

This fictitious threat is the excuse for 2% of European budgets earmarked for spending on arms purchases from the U.S. military-industrial complex and its counterparts in France and other countries. Brussels-NATO war-mongering is used to depict the pro-labor left as “soft” on national security – as if Europe really faces a problem of Russian invasion. Opponents of euro-austerity are depicted as agents of Putin.

The dissenting voice has been Le Pen’s National Front party in France. She decries French participation in NATO, on the ground that it relinquishes military control to the U.S. and its adventurism.

What used to be a socialist left has been silent about the fact that there are very good reasons for people to say that this is not the kind of Europe they want to be a part of. It is becoming a dead zone. And it cannot be “democratized” without replacing the Lisbon and Maastricht treaties on which it is founded, and removing German opposition to public spending on recovery for Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece and other countries.

 

What is remarkable is that in the face of rising resentment by the “losers” from neoliberalism – the 99 Percent – only the nationalist right-wing parties have criticized the EU’s neoliberalism and the T-TIP. The formerly left-wing Socialist parties of France and Spain, German Social Democrats, Greek Socialists and so forth have endorsed the neoliberal, pro-financial program of austerity and rollbacks on labor union power, wages and pensions.

So the riddle is, how did originally pro-labor parties become anti-labor?

 

1. Bureaucratic corruption of all parties over time

The 14^th-century Islamic philosopher of history, Ibn Khaldun, estimated that every dynasty runs its course in about 120 years (four generations). The tendency is to start out with a progressive “group feeling” of mutual aid. But in time, dynasties succumb to luxury and greed, and become corrupt and easily manageable by special interests.

The same thing may be said of political parties. Every party that identified with the left in the Progressive Era – the Labour and Socialists parties of Europe, and the progressive Democrats in the United States – have now moved to the neoliberal right as it has become part of “the establishment.”

It is as if left and right parties have switched positions politically. The socialist left is not protesting against eurozone austerity, but is applauding it. Like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in Britain, they have become Thatcherite, pushing privatization and corporatism.

At least Europe’s political system offers a way out: New parties can be formed to replace the old, and parliamentary representation reflects approximately the public vote. That is what enabled Italy’s Five Star movement, Spain’s Podemos and even Greece’s Syriza to organize and win parliamentary seats. Their program is to restore a left-wing, pro-labor government regulating the economy to raise wages and living standards, not siphon off income to pay the financial centers and the One Percent.

 

III. What blocks a progressive U.S. Political Left

The United States is locked into a two-party system that blocks opponents of neoliberalism. Our presidential election system was warped at the outset by the favoritism for southern slaveowners. It fixed their representation to reflect a slave population that could not vote, but was counted in the South’s Congressional representation, and in presidential elections via the electoral college.

I won’t go into the details here, but the way in which the two-party system has emerged blocks a third party from gaining control of key congressional committees or other nitty-gritty instruments of government. That is why Bernie Sanders found it necessary to run as a Democrat – despite the fact that the Democratic Party apparatus if firmly controlled by its main Wall Street and corporate campaign contributors.

Just as the EU is non-reformable under the Lisbon and Maastricht treaties – the U.S. political system seems unreformable. In the hands of neoliberals it favors Wall Street over labor, and corporate power over environmental protection, public health and economic recovery.

For example, last week the Democratic National Committee rejected Bernie Sanders’ urging that the platform for this year’s elections reject the TPP and TTIP. These trade policies have been called “NAFTA on steroids.” While Hillary initially supported them, she is making a left-wing feint claiming to oppose them – but won’t permit this to be put in writing in the platform, even though it is “only a piece of paper,” as Jane Sanders has said.

This leaves it to Donald Trump to denounce the Democrats as supporting corporatism at the expense of labor. It puts him in the position of Nigel Farage in Britain or Marine Le Pen in France, or the nationalists in Austria and Hungary.

And it puts the Democrats as solidly on the neoliberal, anti-labor, anti-regulatory side of the political equation as are the French Socialists and their right-wing counterparts in other countries Lorrie Wallach, Paul Craig Roberts and others are making the case against TPP and TTIP, but only Mr. Trump seems able to play this key political card.

 

So the great problem of our time is how to create an alternative to neoliberalism, the TPP and TTIP that is pro-labor and pro-environmental. Why can’t America create a party that has a realistic ability to set government policy? Many Green Party members seek to do this. But the U.S. two-party system marginalizes them.

Although the Socialist and other third-party movements a century ago ended up influencing the Democratic Party, the Sanders campaign shows how little chance there is of this happening today. Hillary’s corporate donors have tightened their stranglehold on the party apparatus. They have hijacked Progressive Era rhetoric and slogans, to wrap around right-wing neoliberal policies.

So there are two problems with countering austerity and debt deflation. First of all, the U.S. electoral system prevents an alternative.

Second, the former left-wing parties have stultified and rejected their pro-labor origins to support Thatcherism, privatization, balanced budgets and pro-bank austerity. Rejecting Marx, they have joined the New Cold War.

There is another European economy that is possible. But it cannot be built on the current foundations. It is necessary to break up the eurozone to rebuild a pro-labor Europe.

Read also:

The Day After, by James K. Galbraith

LE BREXIT ET L’IMPLOSION DE L’UNION EUROPEENNE, PAR SAMIR AMIN

End of Regime in Europe!

 

Source:  http://www.defenddemocracy.press/silence-left-regarding-euro-austerity-t-tip-michael-hudson/

Germany Buys Monsanto –

and Sells the TTIP to Europe 

25/05/2016

 

By Peter Koenig

Is it coincidence that Berlin approves and even recommends the ‘hostile’ takeover of Monsanto by the German agro-and pharma giant, Bayer? – Or is another occult strategic arrangement between Washington and its vassal-in-chief of the EU, Berlin, to push the nefarious, Europe-destructive TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) down the throat of the European population? Although the corrupt corporate western media are doing everything to keep the people at large as ignorant as possible, the truth is slowly seeping through. More than 90% of Germans object against Monsanto’s weed killer glyphosate (brand name ‘Roundup’) – which was recently declared by WHO, after multiple studies and re-studies, as carcinogenic. A large majority of Germans also oppose GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) in food.

Under the secretly negotiated TTIP, corporations, such as Monsanto, would prevail over public opinion. The laws of the corporations which would bring along their own private court system, would be weighing in above the national courts of ‘sovereign’ EU members. In fact, any public protests in the streets could be violently oppressed by police and military forces – very legally, because a signed and approved TTIP could become the law of the land – hence to be enforced by martial law if necessary, against the will of the people.

This and other dictatorial reasons, always under the flag of protecting people from terrorism, is why French President Hollande is trying so hard to push a permanent Martial Law – or in the terms of disguise, a ‘State of Emergency’ – through the French Parliament. So far he has been able to extend it through July, until after the European Football championship – UEFA EURO 2016 – which is planned in June / July 2016 in France.

After another couple of airplane downings or false flag mass-killings instigated by the usual suspects, CIA, Mossad, the French internal and external secret police, DGSI and DGSE and others, Hollande and other European leaders (sic – because they are no leaders but corrupt puppets of Washington’s without backbone) will slide ‘State of Emergency’ type laws through their respective Parliaments like butter. What’s worse – is people will ask for such laws for fear.

Yes, the Fear Factor is still the dominant measure to manipulate public opinion and behavior. It has been for thousands of years the weapon of choice by dictators to dominate the masses. Hitler and Stalin even boasted about how they used Fear to get people march along in lockstep, straight into WWII and – into defeat by the Soviet Union. If anybody believes that today’s dictators, Obama, Cameron, Merkel and consortia are any different, they are ignorant.

Today’s lie propaganda is just much more sophisticated then hither-day, using more advanced communication technologies. Such methods of deception are actually taught at prominent Ivy League Universities of the United States of Chaos and Killing. And in case the soft-killer of presstitute propaganda should fail, there is always the killer of choice: Bombs, tanks and drones, the sledgehammer of last resort – NATO.

 

Back to the Bayer-Monsanto alliance. Germany’s Bayer buying Monsanto for US$ 62 billion would not only be the largest agro-pharma takeover in history, but it might well be the most profitable and simultaneously the most destructive one for mankind. Now that WHO, the conservative and always politically ‘correct’ international health body has come out saying that Glyphosate is cancer-causing – which is what most of us knew and what many previous studies carried out by reputed research institutes in France, Germany and even the United States reported. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/15/weedkiller-suspected-of-causing-cancer-deemed-safe . We also know, that genetically modified (GM) food crops have nefarious long-term health effects, including cancer.

Is it then surprising that the vast majority of Europeans do not want Glyphosate and GMOs legalized in Europe? If the TTIP is signed and sealed by the neoliberal EU vassal governments, these poisons against humanity will become legal, no matter what the people say. There is a lot of money involved – not billions but trillions. So the price to have Bayer purchase Monsanto – obviously under an agreement between Washington and Berlin – a mere US$ 62 billion – is but peanuts.

To defend her position, Germany may just apply the usual fearmongering about job-losses if this merger was to be stopped. Job-losses whether true or false, it works every time and in every country indoctrinated with neoliberal thinking. – Talking about job losses, where was Merkel when her Master in Washington imposed on her and the rest of Europe to impose sanctions on Russia which cost the German industry alone an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 jobs?

In fact, Russia may become the only country in Europe’s vicinity that is GMO and Monsanto / Bayer-poison free. President Putin recently said that after the “EU export-ban sanctions”, Russian agriculture quickly regained momentum to exceed self-sufficiency to the point that Russia could supply Europe with bio-food for those who want to avoid GMO-food. That’s an encouraging outlook; an outlook that should make clear to any progressive and sovereign European Government that the future lays in partnership with Russia, with the East – and no longer with the decaying fraudulent West.

Glyphosate and GMOs are key items of objection of the TTIP. If Germany owns Monsanto and its many patents harmful to humanity, the German Government will logically defend and promote their company’s products, i.e. Germany may become a driver for the TTIP. Germany, the Government, not the people. This looks like the fatal Washington-Berlin alliance with regard to ‘promoting’ Bayer to purchase Monsanto. Who knows what type of incentives Bayer was promised. We can only guess.

There are no financial or economic reasons why Bayer should even consider buying out Monsanto. According to the Journal ASEED Europe (Action for Solidarity Environment Equality and Diversity) of 21 October 2013, “Bayer is [already] one of the leading suppliers of pesticides and seeds. A current enquiry at the European Patent Office shows that in terms of the number of GMO patents Bayer actually comes first. Maize, wheat, rice, barley, soy, cotton, sugar beet, rapeseed, potatoes, tobacco, tomatoes, grapes – the list of transgenic plants, on which Bayer ‘Cropscience’ owns patents, is long. The corporation has even taken out patents on genetically modified trees, for example poplars, pine trees and eucalyptus. This is the result of an enquiry by the Coalition against Bayer Dangers and No Patents on Seeds! at the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich, Germany. For this purpose, the initiatives scrutinized all patent applications submitted by Bayer over the last 20 years. According to the investigation the company owns 206 of the total number of 2,000 patents on transgenic plants issued in Europe. This puts Bayer in the number one spot – even before Pioneer (179), BASF (144), Syngenta (135) and Monsanto (119).”

The people are immaterial in the face of profits. Its profit over people – the steadfast motto of neoliberal thinking and neoliberal economics. If Germany goes for the TTIP, the rest of Europe will follow. So the thesis goes. So the evil empire wants it. This may be the thought of how to force the TTIP upon Europe. If this doesn’t work, there are always false flags, terror attacks that justify NATO and local Police interventions – total crackdowns, when people are in fear they have no energy left to fight against the oppressive trade agreement; they just want to be safe from the all and ever present western invented and western presented Jihadist terrorism.

Of one thing we may be sure, Washington will not let go of the TTIP and the TPP (Transpacific Partnership) agreements. They are part of the Masterplan to world hegemony; the same way as are ‘regime changes’ in countries with undesirable governments, with left-leaning leaders who cling to their countries’ sovereignty, like Syria, Venezuela, Iran, Bolivia, Ecuador – and let’s not forget the only ones left bringing hope to humanity: China and Russia. – It is – We, The People – the only might that can stop the monstrous corporate octopus led by Washington’s all-encompassing fraudulent financial and monetary weapon.

Under Washington’s plan, all these non-aligned countries must fall – ‘regime change’ by all means. The same plan also stubbornly is set for the despicable trade agreements, TTIP and the TPP, to be forcefully imposed on the European and Asian partners’ populations. The members of these 40 partners, including the US, account for about 40% of world GDP, measured by purchasing power parity (ppp). However, the commercial interchanges foreseen under the European and Asian treaties would all be in favor of the hegemon and enslaving the partners. Obama’s legacy may depend on these agreements.

Europeans and Asians, please do not forget to remember what happened to Mexico under Clinton’s NAFTA, followed by the Central American Free Tarde Agreement – CAFTA-DR (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic) – a complete economic disaster for the farmers and peasants of these Latin American countries. For tens of thousands of them NAFTA and CAFTA were and still are outright condemnations into poverty.

Although people have little or nothing to say in the decision for or against the TTIP, it is encouraging to learn what The Guardian reports: ‘Despite the Obama administration’s concerted push to finish both TTIP and its Asian counterpart, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), before the presidential election in November, support for trade deals are plummeting in the US: a recent poll showed that only 18% of the public support TTIP, compared to 53% in 2014.’ – Will the US Congress pay attention to people’s opinion when they vote for or against the TPP and eventually the TTIP?

The silver lining of this dark cloud overhanging Europe is that people are waking up in the US. A similar picture may confront Germany’s push for Bayer’s ‘unfriendly’ takeover of Monsanto – the corporate killer by food poisoning. We, The People must wake up to understand, that unless we act – and act fast – we may lose the tremendous power we have against the small elite. With a concerted effort and spirit we can defeat the monster.

Read also on this issue:

Berlin backs Monsanto, people are revolting against it.

http://www.defenddemocracy.press/berlin-backs-monsanto-people-revolting/

Putin is taking a bold step against biotech giant Monsanto

http://www.defenddemocracy.press/putin-taking-bold-step-biotech-giant-monsanto/

 

Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik, PressTV, Chinese 4^th Media, TeleSUR, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Why France Wants to Block TTIP Deal Between US, EU

© Flickr/ greensefa

World

16:44 08.07.2016Get short URL

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France has opposed the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal between the European Union and the United States. French officials insist that the deal will be beneficial for the US economy while ruining businesses across Europe.

© REUTERS/ Luke Macgregor

UK Trade Ties, Including TTIP, Likely to Remain Unchanged After Brexit

The TTIP deal establishing a free-trade zone between Europe and the US will not be signed in 2016, Harlem Desir, Secretary of State for European Affairs in the French government, said in an interview with France-Info.

"The conditions for this deal have not been agreed yet. And taking into account the current situation, I can say, they will not be agreed until the end of the year. In particular, France sees as insignificant Washington’s proposals on the access to the US market for European products. The proposals would offer no benefits for the European economy," Desir said.

According to him, there are several "red lines" that cannot be ignored in the text of the document.

Matthias Fekl, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, underscored that the negotiations have stalled due to Washington’s stance on the issue.

"We cannot allow the infringement of our national interests," Fekl said.

© REUTERS/ Kai Pfaffenbach

Concluding TTIP Remains Priority for Obama Despite Brexit - White House

Initially, the TTIP deal was seen as Europe’s response to its inability to overcome economic depression. Its strategic goals were to increase trade between the US and the EU and to give fresh impetus to economic growth in the "Trans-Atlantic civilization."

In theory, such an agreement would presume elimination of mutual tariff and non-tariff barriers to ease access to the markets. Currently, average customs tariffs between the US and the EU are three to four percent and the removal of customs barriers would not increase trade.

What is more important, the deal presumes lifting administrative and regulatory barriers. These norms are much stricter in Europe than in the US. If Europe removes them it would open its market for American goods.

The document has been criticized as being designed to open the doors to other markets for US transnational corporations.

If the EU signs the deal nearly 600,000 Europeans will lose their jobs, European goods will not be able to enter the US market, exports will decrease and EU countries will lose income, Jeronim Capaldo, a research fellow at the Tufts University, wrote.

© REUTERS/ Kai Pfaffenbach

'No Future for TTIP': German Politician Slams Deal for 'Dividing' the World

As a result, he warned, the EU will suffer a drop in GDP. Germany, Europe’s strongest economy, may lose up to 1.4 percent of its GDP.

Earlier this year, the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that the US mounted strong pressure on Europe over the TTIP deal. In particular, according to leaked documents, Washington threatened to create difficulties for exports of European cars to the US if Brussels rejected to buy more American agricultural products.

"The US aggressively protects its market by unilateral regulatory quotas on imported products, from agricultural products to cars. Those quotas are set for the entire EU so a separate EU country cannot get guarantees that its products will enter the American market," Georgy Vaschenko, head of operations at the investment company Freedom Finance, told the Russian online newspaper Vzglyad.

The US has also opposed replacement of arbitration courts with transparent national commercial courts to settle trade and investment disputes.

"The agreement includes several provisions declaring the priority of US investors over the legal norms of European countries. At the same time, EU companies don’t have the similar rights in the US," Nikita Kulikov, executive director at Heads Consulting, pointed out.

© REUTERS/ Kai Pfaffenbach

Goodbye TTIP? US-European Trade Deal's Fate Hangs in the Balance

Moreover, according to the documents, the US has challenged the European norm which prohibits selling products until they are proved to be safe for people and environment.

As a result, cheap meat products containing hormones would flood the European market, destroying local businesses.

"If the deal is signed French domestic companies will face major losses. The French government will face a tough choice – to further cut social programs and abandon high environmental standards or put up with the losses of domestic companies," Kulikov pointed out.

The deal will have negative impact on the entire European farming industry and may also affect the European engineering industry, Anna Kokoreva, senior analyst at Alpari, said.

According to her, the deal is more advantageous for the US because it would eliminate the barriers which make American products noncompetitive in the European market.

Source:  http://sputniknews.com/world/20160708/1042652110/france-us-ttip-deal.html

German Vice Chancellor Slams Merkel Over ‘Hasty' Approach to TTIP

 

© AP Photo/

Europe

14:22 30.05.2016(updated 14:32 30.05.2016) Get short URL

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German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel questioned the need for further negotiations with the United States on the Transatlantic Partnership (TTIP) and criticized Angela Merkel's premature steps in this direction.

Negotiations on a free trade agreement between the EU and the United States have repeatedly caused controversy among Europeans. The TTIP has not only divided German society, but also split the country's political elite.

Thus, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has opposed German Chancellor Angela Merkel's "hasty" approach toward the deal.

"This was wrong that in the euphoria of Obama's visit to Germany, the Chancellor said we will be able to conclude negotiations by the end of this year and recently repeated this statement once again," the politician said in an interview with RND.

Gabriel stressed that the agreement on the transatlantic trade partnership with the United States poses a threat to the national legislation on environmental protection and labor law. In addition, the terms of the document remain vague.

The politician stressed that his party would not approve a deal with the United States, if it provides lower standards than those currently negotiated between Germany and Canada. According to the politician, the Germans must know the true intentions of the United States, and only then it will be possible to properly negotiate the issue.

© REUTERS/ Wolfgang Rattay

TTIP Trade Deal to Have Effect on EU-Russia Economic Cooperation

The TTIP deal, which was been negotiated since 2013, involves the creation of a free trade zone between Europe and the United States. Such countries as Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland will also participate in the TTIP.

Supporters of the agreement emphasize that it would create jobs and increase economic growth. Opponents warn that only big corporations would benefit from the agreement to the detriment of ordinary people and small businesses.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160530/1040478114/merkel-hasty-approach-ttip.html#ixzz4A8rMhtGn

TTIP Trojan HorseBoris Johnson Slams EU

Boris Johnson Slams EU as 'Vast Pantomime Horse' Negotiating Trade Deal

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Europe

15:19 16.05.2016(updated 15:31 16.05.2016) Get short URL

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Former London Mayor Boris Johnson has been accused of performing political "gymnastics" after saying negotiating the EU-US trade agreement on behalf of the European Union is "like trying to ride a vast pantomime horse, with 28 people blindly pulling in different directions."

Boris Johnson – who is now a leading campaigner to take the UK out of the EU at the In-Out referendum on Britain's membership of the EU on June 23 – had previously been in favor of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), currently being negotiated between the EU and the US.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph in 2014, Johnson said: "It is Churchillian in that it builds transatlantic links, it is all about free trade, and it brings Britain and Europe closer to America. The idea is to create a gigantic free-trade zone between the EU and the US … There is absolutely nothing not to like about the TTIP."

However, having declared himself behind the Brexit campaign, Johnson is now accused of making a U-turn after saying in a recent speech: "As for the argument that we need the muscle of EU membership if we are to do trade deals – well, as I say, at the results after 42 years of membership, the EU has done trade deals with the Palestinian Authority and San Marino. Bravo.

"But it has failed to conclude agreements with India, China or even America. Why? Because negotiating on behalf of the EU is like trying to ride a vast pantomime horse, with 28 people blindly pulling in different directions."

"Dishonest Gymnastics"

Johnson's reference to the late Sir Winston Churchill brought immediate condemnation from the grandson of the former UK Prime Minister, Sir Nicholas Soames who told The Observer newspaper:

"It is another example of Boris's complete lack of credibility and coherence on this very important transaction. People will simply not understand this fundamentally dishonest gymnastics.

"What he's attacking is the fact that the vested interests of member countries prevent any progress towards a TTIP deal. If the UK votes to leave the EU, we can do our own trade deal with the US free from member state interference."

The TTIP negotiations will lead to the biggest trade deal in the world, opening up the EU and the US to each other's markets.

© Photo: Pixabay

Brexit: 'A Bullet at EU’s Backside to Spur It Into Action'

However, the talks have stalled on the fine details — particularly on regulatory issues, where critics in Europe fear that the deal will lead to a loosening of stricter controls over food ingredients, medicines and other issues.

There is also criticism over the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) under which companies are able to effectively sue governments if their regulatory system leads to lost profits.

A typical example of this is the cigarette giant Phillip Morris, which has attempted (unsuccessfully) to sue the Australian Government over plain cigarette packaging, but is still bringing a case against Uruguay over its anti-smoking legislation, which the tobacco giant says devalues its brands.

 

 

 

Related:

Trade Chief Lambasts EU Leaders for Falling Public Trust in TTIP Trade Deal

Ex-London Mayor Johnson Compares EU Superstate Project to Hitler's Plans

UK to 'Prosper, Thrive, Flourish' Outside EU - Former London Mayor

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Read more: http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160516/1039684470/brexit-eu-ttip-deal.html#ixzz48p0nXDYt

Submitted by IWB, on May 14th, 2016

 

« Pew Research Study – The American Middle Class Declined in 90% of Metro Areas From 2000-2014     Gold & Silver Demand Skyrockets as “Chinese Floor” Ensures Upward Price Moves » TTIP is the Bookend to the WTO Agreement to Protect Bankers Submitted by IWB, on May 14th, 2016 inShare0 by Martin Armstrong The TTIP proposal is bought and paid for by the banks. Pick up the rug and you will always find the dirt. The USA has been fining European banks for vast amounts of money. The New York banks, especially Goldman Sachs, is shaking like a leaf at the thought that they could be hauled into European courts to pay for the collapse of Greek debt (for starters). The main stumbling block with TTIP is how, at the request of the bankers, the agreement prohibits any foreign country from suing New York banks anywhere outside of New York City — where they own all the judges today just as the mafia did during the Prohibition days. Back in 1999, ex-Goldman Sachs U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said that crafting a deal to allow China into the World Trade Organization (WTO) was “eminently doable.” Yes, it was Robert Rubin who orchestrated the repeal of Glass-Steagall, and few people realize that he also opened the door so that Goldman Sachs could sell derivative time bombs outside the USA. Rubin managed to stuff the financial services portion into the World Trade Organization Agreement and placed the world at Goldman Sachs’ doorstep. “This deal covers 95% of the global financial services market as measured in revenue. With this deal, 102 WTO members now have market-opening commitments in the financial services sector, including 70 improved offers in this round of negotiations. The commitments before us now encompass $17.8 trillion in global securities assets; $38 trillion in global (domestic) bank lending; and $22.2 trillion in worldwide insurance premiums. In insurance alone, US companies now have more than $200 billion in foreign premiums.” (Statement by Secretary Rubin and Ambassador Barshefsky Regarding the Successful Conclusion of the WTO Financial Services Negotiations 12/13/1997) TTIP is now all about protecting the banks from lawsuits because they blew up the world and seriously damaged the global economy. Under Ronald Reagan, the annual GDP growth was 3.5%. Obama will pray for 1.5%. Trading volume in the S&P 500 and the velocity of money crashed and burned after Rubin connived to repeal Glass-Steagall and gave birth to transactional banking. TTIP is by no means a real trade deal. It is one-sided and intended primarily to protect the New York bankers.

The Collapse of the European Union

The Collapse of the European Union
Return to National Sovereignty and to Happy Europeans

By Peter Koenig
May 12, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - Imagine – the European Union were to collapse tomorrow – or any day soon for that matter. Europeans would dance in the streets. The EU has become a sheer pothole of fear and terror: Economic sanctions – punishment, mounting militarization, the abolition of civil rights for most Europeans. A group of unelected technocrats, representing 28 countries, many of them unfit to serve in their own countries’ political system, but connected well enough to get a plum job in Brussels – are deciding the future of Europe. In small groups and often in secret chambers they decide the future of Europe.

Take the TTIP – under pressure from their masters in Washington, behind closed doors under utmost secrecy – and most likely against their own personal good – a small group of European Commission (EC) delegates without scruples, without any respect for their co-citizens, without consideration for their children, grand-children and their children, only interested in the instant laurels and pay-back – to be sure – from the colonialist, usurper and warrior number One, the United States of Chaos and Killing, they are ready to put 500 million Europeans and their descendants at peril.

It cannot be said enough what horrors the TTIP (Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) would do to the people of Europe; and that is based on the little we know from the 248 pages ‘leaked’ by Greenpeace Netherlands of the ultra-clandestine negotiations taking place. ‘Negotiations’ is the most unfair term imaginable, since all the rules are imposed by Washington, the same as with the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership, involving 11 Pacific countries and the US – but not China and Russia).

Though TPP negotiations are finished, none of the 11 Pacific partners, nor the US Congress have approved the treaty. There is hope that even if ‘negotiations’ by the secret EC traitors and Washington should come to conclusion, at least some of the 28 EU countries may not approve. To be valid, the treaty needs to be approved in unanimity. The new rightwing Austrian frontrunner for Austrian’s Presidency, Norbert Hofer, has already said he would not sign the TTIP agreement. Similar remarks have been made by the French Minister for Foreign Trade, Matthias Fekl, who said, “There cannot be an agreement without France and much less against France.”

Under the TTIP, the citizens of Europe would lose out on all fronts. Europeans would become literally subjects of a corporate empire, led by the United States of America. EU countries would stop being sovereign nations, even more so than is already the case under the current Brussels dictate. As the secret TTIP documents reveal, the agreement would be the death knell for Europe. Here is what Susan George, philosopher and political analyst and President of the Planning Committee of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam has to say:

• The food we import would be chemically treated, would be genetically modified, would have no labels. You wouldn’t know exactly what is in your food. You could buy chicken that has been rinsed in chlorine, you could have beef that was raised with hormones, you could have biosynthetic food made out of one gene of a plant another of an animal, and this would not be labeled.
• In the area of agriculture again, it is very likely that we would lose a great many farmers, because if we lower the tariffs of agriculture we will have a flood of American [highly subsidized, GMO]-corn and basic grains flooding into Spain and that will ruin a lot of farmers, exactly the way the ”campesinos” in Mexico were ruined by the North American Free Trade Agreement, the NAFTA.
• ln the area of health, the pharmaceutical companies [want] to get rid of generic drugs. They have already succeeded in forcing the generic drug companies to repeat all of the clinical trials that they have already had to do with the same identical medicine but which has a brand name. To make it a generic drug you have to start all over again: clinical trials, blind tests, and so forth. So medicine would become much more expensive.

But most important:

• [The TTIP] is about giving corporations the freedom to sue governments if they don’t like a law that the government has passed.
  We have a lot of examples now, because in hundreds of bilateral treaties this private judiciary system exists, and for example, the government of Egypt raised the minimum wage and a company, an important company, Veolia, from France, sued them because they would have to pay their workers more. This case has not been decided yet, but one case that has been decided is for example, Ecuador, which refused that an American petroleum company could drill in a particular region. Well, they said this is a protected area and you cannot drill here. And the company said, ah, we will sue you; and they won. And they have a fine on Ecuador of 1.8 billion dollars which is a lot of money for a small and fairly weak country.

This simply means that private corporate courts would be above the laws and courts of sovereign nations. There would be no sovereignty left; not even the little idependence Brussels has not yet destroyed. EU nations would all be under the rules of an Anglo-American led corporate empire.

You may read Susan George’s full article here http://www.defenddemocracy.press/suzan-george-%CE%BFn-ttip-new-european-movements/, as well as my recently re-published one http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-transatlantic-trade-and-investment-partnership-ttip-would-abolish-europes-sovereignty-the-eu-would-become-a-us-colony/5417382.

And then there is TiSA, the ‘Trade in Services Agreement’, of which even fewer people are aware. It is also being ‘negotiated’ in secrecy, involving 23 WTO members (Australia, Canada, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Costa Rica, the EU (28 countries), Hong Kong China, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States). Altogether, we are talking about 50 countries; 49 of them bent to submit to one, the Unites States of Wars, Crimes and Domination. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to realize that, again, Washington is calling the shots. Actually, the TiSA talks, similar to those of the TTIP, are infiltrated by US corporate trolls and lobbyists, making Washington the representative for the US corporate empire and, of course, for Wall Street.

According to WTO, TiSA would be opening up the market for ‘trade in services’, meaning – expect privatization of all public and social services, like health care, education, social security systems, pensions, transportation, postal services, telecommunication, water supply and sanitation, solid waste disposal – and more would all be subject to buy-outs by transnational corporations. Just look at Greece, trying hard to pay back their ill-begotten debt, selling off her national social capital, or life capital, to the detriment of the poor – by now the majority of Greek – who depend on it. Once a country has signed the trade agreements, there is no way back. It has opened its social and public sectors to rent seeking private corporations.

Like with the TTIP, should a government at a later stage realize that privatization of, say water services, did not bring the promised benefits for the people, it cannot go back and re-nationalize, or municipalize this service. Remunicipalization of water services is currently happening in France, of all places, the country with the most privatized public water supply systems. In 2012 the government and municipalities of large cities decided to re-take these vital public services. This is currently ongoing. Under TiSA rules it would not be possible. Worse – once TiSA is signed, a country cannot decide to exempt a particular sector included in the list for potential ‘liberalization’, for example, health, education and other vital social services. Corporate arbitration courts, similar to those of the TTIP, would be set up for TiSA. – These ‘negotiations’ are taking place in Geneva, under the auspices of WTO – in secret – and driven by rules, sticks and carrots, imposed by – you guessed it – Washington.

If the EU were to collapse today, both the TTIP and the TiSA talks would come to a standstill. Anyone of the 28 EU countries, or better even of the 19 Eurozone countries, could bring the EU down. A Grexit, a Brexit, a fiasco emerging from the forthcoming rehash of the Spanish elections – or a firm decision by a government to default on its (mostly) troika imposed debt, could bring the house of cards of the dollar pyramid scheme to fall – and erase once and for all the enslaving dollar-euro hegemony. Debt could be renegotiated in newly restored national currencies. Remember, the euro is barely 15 years old. So – returning to national currencies should not be dramatic, but rather a sigh of relief – relief from a debt trap, and relief from Washington’s and Brussels’ boots of oppression.

Imagine what a collapse of the EU and the euro-zone would mean for the Greek people. Though, rumors have it that more than half the Greek are still adamant in hanging on to the destructive euro, I bet, its collapse would have hundreds of thousands dancing in the streets. Syriza could forget the currently negotiated additional €3 billion austerity budget cuts – even less pension and higher taxes for the poor.

To be sure, Greek debt relief will not come from the current EU/EC-troika constellation. To the contrary, the German Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schaeuble, has ever harsher words for Greece, as if he was threatening pushing Greece out of the EU. An empty threat, as everybody should know by now. Washington, also the masters of Germany, will not allow a Grexit, or a Brexit or an exit by any EU member. Washington needs the EU ‘intact’ to eventually serve as a slave partner in TTIP and TiSA.

What happened and continues to happen to Greece may serve as a (learning) example for other ‘weak’ southern EU countries to follow – unless, yes, unless, Greece or another country under EC-troika imposed economic and financial stress and strangulation takes the bull by the horns – taking a drastic decision: Exit the EU and the euro-zone, jump-start the local economy with a local currency, and negotiate the illegal and fraudulently imposed debt at their terms. That may bring about the end of the nefarious euro-zone – and the US-created European Union.

Be aware, the EU as it exists today, is not the invention of Europeans; it is a construct thought out immediately after WWII by the US, so as to keep Europe under her control – and to create a buffer zone vis-à-vis communism, the Soviet Union. It worked so far. This idea still prevails, as we see every day how Russia and her leader is being demonized and slandered by the western media. Let us be frank, if it weren’t for the strategic clear-headedness and foresight of President Putin, we – Europe – would be for the third time in 100 years enmeshed in a world war. And if we let this Washington imposed trend continue, Europe will become an Anglo-American  slaveland. Just look at TTIP and TiSA.

A true federation of sovereign European countries down the road, perhaps even with a common currency and a real central bank, may be a viable long-term solution for Europe. But – and this is the most important BUT, such a Europe will have to be designed by true and honest Europeans – am I dreaming? –  and absolutely without any influence of the United States of America. None.

Anyone of the 28 EU countries could return happiness to the people of Europe; could take the pain, frustration, fear and anxiety away; could reinstate national sovereignty, could bring national pride and local – instead of global – economy to the fore – by exiting the EU, by forfeiting the euro, by taking the reign of their people into the hands of a sovereign, democratic government.

A simple exit by one country – Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, the UK, France… you name it, could bring the ferocious debt machine to a grinding halt, opening the opportunity of joining a new, more just and more equal monetary scheme – the nascent combined eastern economic space of China, Russia, BRICS, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) and the EEU (Eurasian Economic Union).

To be sure, time is important. Not for nothing Obama is pushing for speedy conclusions and signing of the disgraceful TTIP. The signing of these predatory agreements, TTIP, TiSA, TPP, is a key agenda item of Obama’s Presidency; his corporate and military legacy – NATO expansion is part of it – may depend on it.  Once these treaties are signed, there is no way back. If the TTIP is ratified despite all logic, and if subsequently the EU fell apart – each country would still be held accountable to the terms of the agreement. Hence, time for an EU collapse before signing of the TTIP and TiSA is of the essence.

This radical solution may be too much even for staunch EU / Euro opponents. Many of them still seek, hope and dream of a reformed EU. They still live under the illusion that ‘things’ could be worked out. Believe me – they cannot. The Machiavellian US-invented venture, called European Union with the equally US-invented common currency – the Eurozone – has run its course. It is about to ram the proverbial iceberg. The EU-Euro vessel is too heavy to veer away from disaster. Europe is better off taking time to regroup; each nation with the objective of regaining political and economic sovereignty – and perhaps with an eye a couple of generations down the road envisaging a new United Europe of sovereign federal states, independent, totally delinked from the diabolical games of the western Anglo-American empire.

Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.

 

Source:  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44626.htm

 

Posted with author's permission.