Video: TTIP day of action call out

Behind closed doors, the EU and US are drawing up a new trade deal called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership trade deal (TTIP) that must be stopped.

July 5, 2014
2 min read

Jenny Nelson is a Red Pepper web editor.

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If agreed, TTIP would extend the power of big business over our society to unprecedented levels. It would grant corporations the power to sue governments for making laws that ‘damage’ their profits, threatening to make the privatisation of our public services, like the NHS and education irreversible.

This deal is also about undoing hard-won regulation that protects workers’ rights, the environment and our health. Harmful industries like fracking would be given an easier ride and banks and financial institutions would gain even more power. Meanwhile, food safety standards would be undermined and pay and conditions at work could decline.

Trade deals like this have been beaten before. From 1999 until 2013 the World Trade Organisation was unable to sign a global agreement and protests held up attempts to embed the extension of corporate power into an international treaty. Today a coalition of groups are calling for a new global resistance movement. Read more about the trouble with TTIP.