As the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, passes its final round of negotiations, the White House is going all out to portray the deal as a great gain for working people. US unions don’t agree, and they’ll be fighting the new generation trade deal between twelve countries around the…Read more…
Commission’s proposals for reforms to ISDS: new name, same danger
Last week EU Trade Commissioner Malmström announced proposals for a reformed version of the notorious Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions in TTIP. The new system of investment protection she described is called the ‘Investment Court System’, or ISD. Sounds similar to ISDS, doesn’t…Read more…
Global teacher unions oppose neo-liberal trade & investment agreements
At this week’s Education International (EI) World Congress in Canada, education unions around the globe voted to oppose the new wave of trade and investment agreements that are being negotiated…Read more…
What’s wrong with ISDS? Romania’s environment & history under attack
The latest example of what’s wrong with Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) – the privileged route to riches for foreign investors who can persuade a separate international court that they have been disadvantaged by a democratically-elected government – is a case being lodged…Read more…
ISDS: we won’t be fooled by a rebranding
Yesterday, Brussels was full of rumours that the European Commission had finally found a way to respond to the massive backlash generated by its proposal for a special court for US investors: a simple rebranding should do the trick. Currently known as …Read more…
ISDS-lite could yet scupper the EU-Canada trade deal
The TUC is no fan of the revised Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) process that EU Trade Commissioner Malmstrom has persuaded the European Parliament to back in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal between the EU and US…Read more…
European Parliament view on EU-US trade deal
The European Parliament has finally voted on its resolution about the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership, or TTIP, the EU-US trade deal being negotiated by Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and US Trade Representative Mike Froman. Most of the news yesterday was about a compromise over…Read more…
Why investor protection matters so much in trade deals
The European Parliament will vote at last on Wednesday (unless the vote is postponed again, until the autumn) on the most toxic element of modern trade deals: investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). Like the rest of the European trade union movement, we’re calling on MEPs to exclude ISDS,…Read more…
MEPs must listen to the people and vote down #ISDS compromise in #TTIP debate
Our MEPs look set at last to debate and vote later this week on the promised resolution on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal between the EU and USA. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is calling on MEPs to vote a…Read more…
Tell MEPs not to make a bad compromise on ISDS in TTIP
A last-minute European Parliament compromise deal poses a real risk MEPs settle for a damaging ISDS-lite plan.Read more…
#TTIP news: 10 reasons why the latest #ISDS compromise is a bad deal
Yesterday the Socialists & Democrats Group in the European Parliament voted 56-34 to endorse a compromise amendment to the Parliament’s draft resolution on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP, the EU-US trade deal), covering the controversial issue of Investor-State…Read more…
TTIP, CETA, TISA: We need to call time on zombie trade deals
Trade affects everyone’s lives. It affects the job you can get, the pay you receive and of course the goods you can buy. But trade policy and negotiations like those being conducted for TTIP, CETA and TiSA affect a lot more than that, and come with huge risks for our society. I’ll be speaking…Read more…
If you mean it, put it in writing: unions to Cameron on NHS & #TTIP
At Prime Minister’s Questions this afternoon, David Cameron repeated – yet again – his claim that we should trust him that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP – the EU-US trade deal) would have no impact on the NHS. Under fire from Labour Leader Harriet…Read more…
#TTIP vote postponed: blow to G7 hopes of an early EU-US trade deal
This afternoon, we heard that the votes in the European Parliament due for Wednesday lunchtime on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) had been postponed. Various reasons for the postponement have been given, and there are different explanations of what the postponement means…Read more…
#TTIP: What MEPs will be voting on this Wednesday
This Wednesday, the European Parliament will vote on what message to send to the negotiators of the EU-US trade and investment deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). They won’t (yet) be voting on whether to accept the deal, partly because the vast bulk of it…Read more…
#TTIP could be years away yet, but MEPs can strike a crucial early blow this Wednesday
The controversial TTIP trade deal between the USA and the European Union is being debated in the European Parliament on Wednesday.Read more…
TTIP, ISDS and INTA; the elephant in the room
5 June 2015
By Professor Keith Ewing and John Hendy QC
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The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is the secret trade deal currently being negotiated between the EU and the USA….Read more…
Why diet-ISDS is almost as bad as ISDS, and why we should oppose both
The popular outcry against Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), the element of trade deals which gives foreign investors a privileged route to claim compensation for measures they claim cost them future profits, led the European Union Trade Commissioner to come up earlier this month with an…Read more…
TTIP – European Parliament fight moves on
The international trade committee of the European Parliament (known as INTA) adopted a report yesterday on the controversial EU-US trade deal known as TTIP (Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment…Read more…
ACT NOW! The next few days are vital for EU-US trade deal
On Thursday, the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee (known as INTA) will vote on a series of amendments to a draft report on the EU-US trade deal TTIP (the Trans-Atlantic Trade…Read more…