International

The TTIP will not help people in lower income groups to make progress, and could possibly even harm them, as consumer prices rise. In addition, the TTIP will increase coal consumption by 0.3% and gas consumption by 0.2% and lead to a growth in CO2 emissions of between 0.2% and 0.3%. Furthermore, the TTIP presents a threat to the agreements on climate signed late last year in Paris. The SP has drawn these conclusions from the draft environmental report published by the research bureau Ecorys, which examines the sustainability of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership currently under negotiation by the European Union and the United States.

Commenting on the report itself, SP Euro-MP Anne-Marie Mineur says that “the researchers proceed from an ambitious scenario where 100% of existing trade tariffs are scrapped. A scenario in which 98% have been discarded ranks as ‘less ambitious’. But the negotiators are stuck at 97%, so the conclusions are extremely premature. It wouldn’t surprise me if the implications for sustainability of the definitive treaty need to be seriously adjusted.”

The report calculates that high income groups will profit far more from possible salary increases than will people on low incomes, and that over and above that consumer prices will rise by 0.3%. That will make the position of people not working, such as pensioners and the unemployed, more difficult.