Written by GreyRaven   

Despite the threatened termination of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations by several European countries earlier this year, due to revelations concerning massive and ongoing surveillance/espionage activities conducted by the NSA/GCHQ axis in their territories, TTIP negotiations nonetheless remain ongoing between the United States and the European Union.

In light of the just ended U.S. mid-term elections and their catastrophic result, attempts to conclude these negotiations will be forced by a Republican-dominated Congress.

The TTIP trade agreement is ostensibly aimed towards “removing trade barriers in a wide range of economic sectors to make it easier to buy and sell goods and services between the EU and the US”. As the European Commission states on its website, the purpose is to cut tariffs “across all sectors” and to “tackle barriers” such as technical regulations, standards and approval procedures. These regulations and standards apparently cost companies, who want to sell their products in both markets, “unnecessary time and money”.

This is, of course, quite unfortunate for the corporations involved but their “ratio” seems to overlook, that these technical regulations and standards exist in order to protect consumers from shoddy, badly designed and dangerous products. To date, products sold both in the EU and the US had to undergo two separate approval procedures, some of them quite strict, in order ensure that they adhere to certain minimum norms.

In light of the overall corporate track record, it can be safely assumed, that these criteria, within the TTIP framework, will not be made stricter but, quite to the contrary, will be effectively “loosened”, to the detriment of consumers on both continents and to the ultimate benefit of the corporate world. It is in the corporate interest to ensure that with regard to approval procedures, “the lowest common denominator” shall rule.

Yet, TTIP isn’t simply an issue concerning tariffs and product standards. It goes far beyond that.

As the European Commission is happy to point out, “… an ambitious agreement could result in millions of euros of savings to companies and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.” This would certainly be lovely for corporations on both sides of the Atlantic. However, it completely overlooks that it is highly unlikely that consumers will ever benefit from any “savings” on the part of these corporations, as it is their duty to price their products according to “what the market will bear”, and not what might benefit the consumer.

With regard to the creation of “hundreds of thousands of jobs”, the gentlepeople of both Brussels and Washington D.C. elegantly bypass the reality, that those jobs will certainly not be created, either in the U.S. or in Europe. Those jobs will be created in countries where the very cheapest wages are being paid. I see this as a regrettable lapse of basic forthrightness on the part of both negotiating partners, to the detriment of workers on both continents.

As to how the trade agreement will benefit Europe, the European Commission blithely states that “The extra economic growth will benefit everyone; boosting trade is a good way of boosting our economies by creating increased demand and supply without having to increase public spending or borrowing.” This also sounds positively alluring, but fails to elucidate why “increased demand” should even be created, just because the “supply” is there. Will they now now just happily exchange their cheapest junk, at the final expense of the consumer?

Whereas, genetically modified products are widely accepted in the U.S. in addition to meat products which have been copiously “enriched” with hormones, steroids and are then finally “irradiated” to keep them consumable, this is not something that European consumers are willing to accept. With great elegance, this entire issue has been removed from the TTIP negotiating table, to be “addressed later”.

What is patently clear, is that this transatlantic trade and investment agreement has no other purpose than to further secure the privileges of corporations and their investors, both in the U.S. and in Europe. The advantages such an agreement would offer corporations on both continents with a binding, permanent and practically irreversible set of operational parameters.

As U.S corporations, operating globally, are also attempting to create a similar “partnership” within the Pacific economic region (TPP – Trans-Pacific Partnership), what they are navigating towards globally is a system, which would effectively cement control of the most powerful concentrations of capital in the world and then also legally secure their position irrevocably.

It should be carefully noted that the TTIP negotiations are taking place entirely behind closed doors, both in Europe and in the U.S. The general public and the media continue to remain completely excluded from the negotiation process. At the same time, 600 “consultants” belonging to all the “interested” major corporations have been awarded privileged access to both the documents and the “decision makers” involved.

Accordingly, I wonder who is actually representing the interests of both the US and EU citizens, in whose name this “trade agreement” is supposedly being negotiated.

What is being “privately” discussed during these “talks” are, after all, the values assigned to both chemical and toxicological limits on both continents, healthcare and the price of prescription drugs, the right to a private citizen’s sphere of privacy on the Internet, energy supplies, cultural “services”, patents and copyright issues, the use of land and natural resources, the rights and employment possibilities of immigrants and much more.

What citizens on both continents are being sold here, which is supposed to represent the essence and baseline parameters for the “guidelines” regulating commerce in the 21st century, is nothing more than the culmination of a complete reversal of many social movements of the 20th century and all that they provided to untold millions, both in the U.S. and here in Europe.

European critics of the TTIP also point out, that its implementation also carries the potential of seriously endangering democracy in Europe. The neo-emergence of the corporatist system of government, something already far advanced in the U.S. is not a model many in Europe wish to emulate, either now or again. From the viewpoint of the individual citizen, the “corporate state” is a failed concept, insofar as it clearly serves other masters and interests, than those of its citizens and is completely incapable of regulating itself. It incorporates no real “checks and balances” and is therefore destined, over the long term, to bring nothing but ruin upon whatever it rules and upon itself.

It is important now, to do whatever possible to increase the level of awareness among the public, concerning these treaties and their negative consequences for all of our societies. Historically, we have always lost our freedoms and democracies on the altar of greed. Politically and economically, this has often been propagated by small and tyrannical minorities, bent on nothing less than “full control”.

Having apparently come around, once again, it’s now time afford this particular wheel our special attention.