The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), an historic free trade agreement currently being negotiated between the US and EU, seeks to ease the flow of national capital across national borders by standardising business legislation in the world’s two largest trading blocs. Under the dubious heading of ‘regulatory harmonisation’, this agreement paves the way for effective deregulation of employment law in which comparatively weak stateside employment legislation becomes the standard template for 40% of the world’s economy. It’s a thorough tooth-extraction for any putative protections on the EU statute books. TTIP also includes the ‘Investor State Dispute Settlement’ scheme (ISDS), a proviso that allows corporations to directly sue governments for potential loss of profit. And since basic dignities like a living wage and paid parental leave are reliably bad for the bottom line, any future government trying to enhance working conditions could find themselves facing down multinational corporations reaching deeply into their pockets for a scourge of lawyers. Effectively enshrining the right to profit in international law, ISDS legislation makes Nigel Farage’s ‘Small Business Manifesto’ look a little amateurish. ... As Westminster braces itself for another Ukip ‘earthquake’ in 2015, battle lines have been drawn around a single question: in or out? At present, neither option is satisfactory. Both promise to entrench the power of capital over people’s lives. Neither offers meaningful sovereignty. If we want to oppose Ukip’s vile dogwhistle politics, we must oppose it at both the national and the international level. If we want to oppose Ukip’s privatisation plans, we must demand that the EU’s trade agreements offer freedom for more than trade and protection for more than profit.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 08:58:32 +0000
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