TTIP For Dummies From The EU Perspective [Note: Theres Damn Little - TopicsExpress

TTIP For Dummies From The EU Perspective [Note: Theres Damn Little About ANY Of This In the US MSM] Negotiations between the United States and the European Union to forge an ambitious Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) started in July 2013. If successful, the deal would cover more than 40% of global GDP and account for large shares of world trade and foreign direct investment. The EU-US trade relationship is already the biggest in the world. Traded goods and services between the two partners are worth €2 billion daily. Brussels and Washington have set an ambitious goal of completing negotiations by the end of 2015. But the path to reach an acceptable deal is not without hurdles. Citizens all over Europe are petitioning against TTIP and CETA, the newly agreed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada. Campaigners oppose the deal because of several critical issues, but first and foremost for the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) and rules on regulatory cooperation that pose a threat to democracy and the rule of law. “We want to prevent employment, social, environmental, privacy and consumer standards from being lowered and public services (such as water) and cultural assets from being deregulated in non-transparent negotiations. The ECI supports an alternative trade and investment policy in the EU,” they say. Because of rising criticism, Europe and the United States have reached a standoff in the TTIP negotiations, over ISDS and the Commission won’t decide whether to include it until the “final phase of the negotiations” with the US. “There are some fears, some misconceptions, some myths and we want to show that is an important agreement that will benefit citizens, consumers, businesses, the economy on both side of the Atlantic—and many of the fears are not well founded,” European Commissioner Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstöm said. euractiv/sections/trade-society/ttip-dummies-311161