The European Union And The United States - 1743 Words

The European Union and the United States are currently negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The TTIP is labelled a ‘free trade’ agreement, involving the removal of non-tariff barriers between the the US and EU, harmonizing and reducing regulatory requirements and differences in legislation on various goods produced and traded within these countries. If agreed, it will create the world’s largest ‘free trade’ zone in the world. Serious concerns have been raised in regards to the effects of the secretive TTIP on various industries and employees within the EU. TTIP could be seen as another ‘neoliberal project’ - following Margeret Thatchers pioneering - that will affect social, health and environmental†¦show more content†¦(better thesis) Leaked documents about the agreement have revealed the proposed inclusion of Investment State Dispute Settlements (ISDS), which can be viewed as a neoliberal attack on democracy, resulting in immeasurable effects on EU governments’ such as the UK’s. This mechanism is designed to protect foreign organisations investing in another country, and allows companies to claim and sue against that country if a conflict arises that will limit their profits. The ISDS lies in the foreign corporations’ favour, but not in the governments, limiting the UK and many other EU countries’ governmental authority, binding them strictly to the rules of the TTIP. â€Å"ISDS works like a global legal straightjacket that makes it very, very difficult and expensive for governments to regulate corporations †¦ It is dangerous for democracy,† claims Pia Eberhardt, of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), a Brussels-based campaign group. As a result, the UK government may negle ct the rights of workers and domestic organisations in order to avoid conflict with multinational US corporations; stealthily, the neoliberal theory underhandedly infiltrating through. This ‘neo-liberal approach’ of a reduction in the governments authority could threaten organisations such as the NHS, privatizing the public service to American Investors, the ISDS compensation rules making it almost impossible