To: Manchester City Council
Make Manchester a TTIP Free Zone
We, the undersigned, petition the Council to Declare Manchester City Council a TTIP Free Zone by completing the actions described below.
More details from petitioner:
1. To write to the secretary of state for communities and local government, local MPs, and all North West MEPs raising our serious concerns about the impact of TTIP, CETA and TiSA on local authorities and the secrecy of the negotiating process.
2. To write to the local government association to raise our serious concerns about the impact of TTIP, CETA and TiSA on local authorities and ask them to raise these with government on our behalf.
3. To call for an impact assessment on the impact of TTIP, TiSA and CETA on local authorities.
4. To publicise the council’s concerns about TTIP, CETA and TiSA by placing a public statement on their website and joining with other local authorities which are opposed to TTIP across Europe and work with local campaigners to raise awareness about the problems of TTIP and similar trade deals.
5. To contact the local authorities of municipalities twinned with Manchester City Council asking them to consider passing a similar motion on TTIP and similar trade deals.
Why is this important?
These actions are being called for by Stop TTIP MCR, Global Justice Manchester and 38 degrees Manchester for the following reasons:
1. The EU and USA launched negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in July 2013. These negotiations are underway to determine which goods and services TTIP will apply to and if new rules can be agreed to protect investors, harmonise standards, reduce tariffs and open new markets throughout the EU and USA. TTIP could therefore have a detrimental impact on local services, employment, suppliers and decision-making.
2. The EU’s food, environmental and labour standards are better than those in the US but due to the regulatory cooperation involved in TTIP there is a threat to these standards being lowered. TTIP negotiations must raise and not lower these standards across the EU and USA.
3. TTIP is accompanied by other so-called trade deals: CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement), between the EU and Canada, and TiSA (Trade in Services Agreement), between more than fifty countries worldwide.
4. There has been no impact assessment about the potential impact on local authorities. Sourcing supplies and employment locally is important to strengthening local economies and meeting local needs. A thorough impact assessment of TTIP, CETA and TiSA on local authorities must be undertaken before the negotiations can be concluded.
5. There has been no scrutiny of the negotiating texts by local government and no consultation with local government representatives. Any negotiations with potential societal and environmental consequences as controversial as those of TTIP, CETA or TiSA should be subject to public debate and scrutiny.
6. The negotiations are being undertaken in secrecy with only minimal information being shared with the public 1.
7. MPs are also unable to scrutinise the negotiating documents.
8. The alleged economic benefits of TTIP are based on economic models which are wildly optimistic 2, and that other economic models have suggested that TTIP will lead to a major reduction in GDP and a loss of up around 600,000 jobs in the EU 3.
9. A growing number of NGOs and public interest groups are strongly critical of the potential effects on labour standard, food safety, and the environment of standardising EU and US regulations of trade and production. All trade unions in the UK strongly oppose TTIP, CETA and TiSA.
10. The incorporation of an investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism into TTIP and CETA will allow private firms to sue government for imposing laws and regulations that might threaten their actual or potential profits, irrespective of the public interest. ISDS in other trade deals has been used to sue countries attempting to put cigarettes in plain packaging, or to renationalise health services 4. Local decision-making must be protected from ISDS.
11. 97% of responses to a public consultation on the ISDS element of TTIP conducted by the EU Commission were opposed to the mechanism 5.
12. That TTIP, CETA and TiSA will strengthen multinational corporations in relation to populations in both the global north and global south. Furthermore, TTIP is set to create a blueprint for future trade and investment agreements, which threatens to further lock in corporate dominance of the global economy 6.
