TTIP is About Giant Corporates Dominating Our Economies
1 Jun 2015
BreitbartLondon
In over 16 years as an MEP, I’ve never seen such a vast amount of emails, correspondence, even members of the public phoning my office in Strasbourg as I have recently over the issue of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Partly this is because e-mail wasn’t
anywhere near as popular 16 years ago, but the reality is that this is
the first big crack in the European Union’s corporatist agenda. It marks really the first time that I
have seen large numbers of people questioning the EU’s mantra that big
is good and that business, jobs and prosperity flow from all the actions
of the Union.
For years I’ve wondered: just how can the
Left support all of this corporatist stuff? Why are trades unions and
the TUC saying nothing? Well actually, full congratulations to
campaigning group 38 Degrees, who have really highlighted the fact that
TTIP is potentially very significant. I even received a nice letter from
Francis O’Grady, the TUC’s General Secretary, regarding TTIP’s dispute
mechanism. . . .
I’ve always been in favour of free trade,
free markets and a form of competitive capitalism. But I find myself
deeply alarmed by TTIP.
As John Redwood has quite rightly pointed out,
over half our trade with America is tariff-free already. If the EU were
serious about tariff reduction, why not just abolish car tariffs and
we’d be there?
It’s also important for people to
understand when we talk about tariffs, we’re not living in the 1960s and
maximum tariffs are only ever now 3 per cent on manufactured goods
anyway. I have no doubt that if UK had the
self-confidence to negotiate our own genuine tariff free trade deals, we
could have come to such an arrangement with the U.S. about 25 years
ago.
Whilst TTIP may masquerade as being about
free trade, actually it’s not. It’s about harmonisation,
standardisation and a market place in which the giant corporates can
dominate. As a former trader, the argument that
making everything the same creates greater business opportunities is
anathema. Differences in price, regulation and standards lead to a much
greater volume of business and trade being conducted which inevitably
leads to a more competitive, profitable market place.
Whether or not the NHS is directly under
threat or can be excluded from TTIP during what will be interminable
negotiations remains to be seen. But the fact that a disputes mechanism
will be set up that has a higher authority than our own supposedly
sovereign Parliament and Courts is not only undeniable, but in my view
wholly undesirable. And the public themselves, in large numbers, have begun to twig that’s something’s afoot. . . .
Nigel Farage MEP is the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), and a columnist for Breitbart London
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