Brussels, 02/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 2 May, Greenpeace divulged 248 pages of 'classified' documents regarding the EU/United States free-trade negotiations. For the first time since the negotiations began in 2013, the US position on the TTIP is out in the open. Four aspects have been described by the environmental NGO as being “of concern”.
First of all, Greenpeace laments the fact that environmental protection is “dropped”. None of the chapters of which it has had sight refers to the 'general exceptions' rule, which “allows nations to restrict trade to protect human, animal and plant life or health or for the conservation of exhaustible natural resources”, the NGO explains, arguing that this omission suggests that the two sides are creating a regime that puts profit before health and human, animal and plant life.
Greenpeace's analysis of the documents also reveals that climate protection “would be harder under the TTIP”. Not only is there no mention of climate protection in the leaked texts, the “scope of the global warming mitigation measures is limited by the provisions of the chapters on regulatory cooperation or access to the industrial goods market”, it explains. Furthermore, the chapter on energy will “exclude the possibility of regulating imports of pollutant fuels such as oil from shale sands”, the NGO warns.
The fact that the 'precautionary principle' has been left out is another cause for concern to Greenpeace. No reference is made to this principle in the chapter on regulatory cooperation or in the other twelve leaked chapters. Instead, “the American calls for a 'risk-based' approach aiming to manage dangerous substances rather than to avoid them are included in a number of chapters”, the NGO states.
Finally, Greenpeace warns that the TTIP is an “open door for corporate lobbying”. “Whilst the proposals threaten environmental protection and consumer protection, the corporations get what they want”, the NGO adds, slamming the fact that industry has been given the option to take part in the decision-making process from the very beginning.
According to the Director of Greenpeace Europe, Jorgo Riss, “the effects of the TTIP would be initially subtle but ultimately devastating”. This free-trade agreement would lead to “European laws being judged on their consequences for trade and investment - disregarding environmental protection and public health concerns”, he concluded. (Original version in French by Maëlle Didion)