Brussels, 22/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the fifth round of EU-US TTIP negotiations in Arlington this week, the European consumer organisation BEUC listed conditions to be respected by the EU and US if the TTIP agreement is to bring gains to consumers.
In the area of food and nutrition, BEUC calls on the negotiators to put the general interest first, to ensure the highest standards of safety and protection for consumers, to maintain the precautionary principle, and to recognise that societal, ethical and environmental factors and the expectations of consumers must be taken into account in risk management. The TTIP must also guarantee consumers the right to be informed and to choose their food by means of the compulsory labelling of food containing GMOs and of that from cloned animals. In addition, BEUC wants the farm-to-fork approach to be used for decontamination treatments, and for there to be total compatibility of food imported in to the EU with Community legislation.
In another document, BEUC underlines its concerns as regards the TTIP threat to personal data protection. It also warns of the risk of chemicals banned in the EU, but used in US products and cosmetics, finding their way on to the European market. Lastly, BEUC criticises the possible introduction of an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, which could involve taxpayers compensating multinationals. (EH)