Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership - TTIP

[Xann]

What is the objective of TTIP? It is to increase trade between Europe and North America, but that trade is not without a cost. It benefits the companies that undertake it and, yes, that could be beneficial if it means more jobs. But let us look at other trade agreements that claimed in advance that they would offer the same great advantages. An example is the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico. Severally, companies in those countries were all told that free trade would increase trade and opportunities and help to eliminate poverty. Who have been the losers? Those who have been de-industrialised in what is now, unfortunately, known as the rust belt in the USA; those who have seen their working conditions damaged in Canada; and those working for companies that have been set up in Mexico in a virtual tax haven zone on the border, who are paid disgracefully low wages and have appalling working conditions. Has NAFTA actually benefited any of the people it was claimed it would benefit, or has it in fact enriched those who were already doing very nicely, thank you very much? There are some serious questions to be answered there.

There are seven areas of concern: food, climate change, small businesses, policy making, medicines, jobs, and public services. All of them would be affected by TTIP, and all are examples of areas in which private businesses would become empowered to prosecute Governments if they took decisions that were seen to be damaging to private interests. Do we think that this is a cri de coeur? Well, yes it is. It is a cri de coeur for democracy and for the right of people to elect a Government who can decide what goes on in their country. Let us examine the power of global corporations to attack the Government of South Africa for trying to buy generic anti-retroviral drugs, the Government of Ecuador for trying to protect the environment, or the Government of Argentina when the vulture funds bought up debts and are now penalising the people of that country. There are many other places where similar things are happening.

I conclude by asking why there is secrecy surrounding the negotiations. Is it because there are ante-rooms on either side of the Atlantic stuffed full of highly effective corporate lobbyists doing their best to develop their own interests? Should we not instead be demanding a free trade agreement that narrows the gap between the rich and the poor, that protects the advance of public services such as the national health service, that fundamentally protects food production, and that ensures that the best standards become the universal standards, rather than engaging in a race to the bottom that results in the worst standards becoming the norm on both sides of the Atlantic? I hope that the House will reject TTIP.

Corbyn

[MakemineVanilla]

I currently love working my bollocks off for a CEO earning a salary of 2.5 million dollars, a bonus of 25 million dollars and stocks worth 10 million dollars.

 

Meanwhile i earn an ok salary, but nothing special, it enables me to live in a 3 bedroom ex-council house with an okay car with a great wife and a beautiful baby boy.

 

However, i don't think my CEO does that much more work than I, he didn't create the company, he was elected to become CEO. But the fact it would take me 1250 years to earn what he has earned last year is somewhat distasteful.

 

Guess i should have become a bollock sucking, golf playing, guy from a upper class background, accountant in a Southern US state.

 

Ahh well, I'll be quiet and be appreciative of it, hope he has a good life though.

But there is the tragedy.

We all know our predicament and the extent of our exploitation and the tyranny of the system, and we are no longer the dupes of media manipulation which leads to what Marx called false consciousness, we know and understand our class relations.

But what actions or precautions do we take? Do we arrange our lives to resist falling into the traps laid by creditors and those who seek to rob us of independence of thought and action? No we do not. Do we daily dream of our next act of crass unthinking consumerism and waste our hard-earned money on stuff we do not need? We do. 

While we articulate our predicament and understand its causes, we borrow and consume to an extent which ensures our dependence and exploitation, and we reproduce to ensure the next generation of owners and capitalists have workers to exploit.

So while we complain about the system we simultaneously validate that system by our choices and actions.

That is the tragedy.

 

[Xann]

Yup.

[Xann]

The EU minister in charge of TTIP negotiations...

When put to her, Malmström acknowledged that a trade deal has never inspired such passionate and widespread opposition. Yet when I asked the trade commissioner how she could continue her persistent promotion of the deal in the face of such massive public opposition, her response came back icy cold: “I do not take my mandate from the European people.”

Oh.

Who the **** do you take your mandate from?

Independent

[HanoiVillan]

If that's true, she's an absolute twunt. 

[Awol]

The EU minister in charge of TTIP negotiations...

When put to her, Malmström acknowledged that a trade deal has never inspired such passionate and widespread opposition. Yet when I asked the trade commissioner how she could continue her persistent promotion of the deal in the face of such massive public opposition, her response came back icy cold: “I do not take my mandate from the European people.”

Oh.

Who the **** do you take your mandate from?

Independent

:) The European Union in the raw.  You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.

[Xann]

EU minister in charge of TTIP negotiations, Cecilia Malmstrom's Facebook page.

[Tegis]

Orrible word removed

[Xann]

Leaders of almost every major political party in the United Kingdom have signed an appeal not to allow a transatlantic trade deal known as TTIP become the Trojan horse that allows American business interests to take over the NHS.

Except the Tories, obviously.

Independent

[ender4]

Just signed the petition against TIPP.

[Xann]

 

[OutByEaster?]

 

That should be shown on every major channel at prime time.

 

[blandy]

And if Labour want to get anywhere they should be hammering on about this. It's criminal.

[villakram]

On 10/27/2015, 12:24:50, ender4 said:

Just signed the petition against TIPP.

It's got a long way to go

[Awol]

I'm no fan of Assange but that video is sobering. Of course we could just leave the EU,then it wouldn't apply to us - along with a raft of other anti-democratic and Brussels inspired BS.

The west has been on a dodgy path for a while now with the elites sucking power to the centre and then building walls around it to keep the great unwashed at bay. The United States is cheerfully advancing down the road of authoritarian corporatism and the EU is not far behind. The UK pulling out would probably inspire others to do the same, potentially bringing the whole rotten edifice down and thus preserving democracy for another generation or two before they gear up for the next attempt. 

I've not been on the booze or wrapping myself in bacofoil, but it seems pretty clear the citizens of Europe are in a perpetual battle against forces that wish totalitarian government upon us. The EU is simply the latest in a series of attempts over the last two hundred years to impose that model, although this time by stealth, not force.

Globalisation has created a level of connectivity and mutual self interest between national elites that was previously kept in check by national borders, leading to a zero sum game played out in state on state conflict. However that very connectivity between ordinary citizens through the information revolution is the one thing that can puncture this new reality being created around us. They know it, hence the battle to control it, and through it, us.

Fight the power!!

 

Edited November 25, 2015 by Awol
Formatting

[OutByEaster?]

Sadly, the organisations that want us out of the EU seem largely focused on the idea that it's not moving quickly enough to a corporate takeover. UKIP and to an extent the Tories are looking at coming out of the EU to get into this deal more quickly and to get a better benefit for the UK's corporate power seat.

 

[Awol]

15 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Sadly, the organisations that want us out of the EU seem largely focused on the idea that it's not moving quickly enough to a corporate takeover. UKIP and to an extent the Tories are looking at coming out of the EU to get into this deal more quickly and to get a better benefit for the UK's corporate power seat.

 

Any UK/US bilateral trade deal outwith the EU would by definition be independent of TTIP which is designed to encompass a block - like its sister the TPP.  It would therefore be far more transparent and negotiated by people accountable to us, not by some grey suited Euro soup on our behalf. 

As for UKIP, they've been pushing for NHS exemption from TTIP and other good amendments but were defeated in the EU Parliament by a block including Labour MEPs.  I wouldn't want them governing the UK but it's wrong to suggest they are not on the correct side of this issue. 

Edited November 25, 2015 by Awol

[Xann]

 

 

[HanoiVillan]

Not TTIP, but TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), which is basically the same thing but for North America and Asia. New Zealand Economy minister Stephen Joyce faced some slightly unhappy members of the public after his government ratified the treaty this week:

Yep, that's an enormous dildo to the face. Got to compliment the accuracy there. 

[HanoiVillan]

Just try and stop watching it loop! I've watched it about 6000 times over. 

 

EDIT: It's hard to pick a favourite part of this very short gif, because there's so much to unpack, but if I had to choose, it would be the way the dildo tags the woman on the left right on the bewb on the way down. 

Edited February 6, 2016 by HanoiVillan