TTIP debate: mega treaty next step in neoliberal project
TTIP debate: mega treaty next step in neoliberal project
The free trade treaty known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) currently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States represents the next step in the neoliberal project, according to Ewald Engelen, who stated his view during a debate on the treaty in De Moed, the SP’s headquarters in Amersfoort. Engelen was one of around a hundred interested people present.
Three subjects received especial attention: the risk that American products would flood the European market; the opportunity it would hand to corporations to take legal action against states via private courts; and the shadowy decision-making surrounding the treaty. A repeated concern running through each of these topics was that the TTIP would take control out of the hands of democracy.
The debate began with a contribution from Roeline Knottnerus, a researcher and campaigner from the Foundation for Research into Transnational Enterprises, better known by its Dutch acronym SOMO, and the Transnational Institute (TNI). There then followed a panel discussion with a representative of the Dutch Foreign Ministry, the main employers’ and trade union federations, and Professor Ferdi de Ville of the University of Gent. The discussion closed with a speech from columnist and financial geographer Ewald Engelen.
The debate began with a contribution from Roeline Knottnerus, a researcher and campaigner from the Foundation for Research into Transnational Enterprises, better known by its Dutch acronym SOMO, and the Transnational Institute (TNI). There then followed a panel discussion with a representative of the Dutch Foreign Ministry, the main employers’ and trade union federations, and Professor Ferdi de Ville of the University of Gent. The discussion closed with a speech from columnist and financial geographer Ewald Engelen.
SP Euro-MP Anne-Marie Mineur called on everyone to continue to follow developments around the TTIP, while Member of the SP group in the national Parliament Jasper van Dijk closed what he said had been a very successful afternoon by saying that ‘it’s good that the TTIP is provoking an increasingly lively debate. The negotiators would be happiest if the TTIP could be introduced without any fuss, and it’s down to us to prevent that.