Locals take action against TTIP

Local opponents of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) held a short meeting with Hastings and Rye MP Amber Rudd last Saturday to make her aware of the strength of feeling against the secretly negotiated pact. HOT team member, Nick Terdre, opposes TTIP and took part in the meeting. Fellow HOT writer, Zelly Restorick, asks him about his experience.

Q: TTIP? What’s this about, Nick? How will affect our day to day lives?

TTIP is a trade agreement which is being secretly negotiated by the EU and US – judging by what has come into the public domain, mainly through leaks and Freedom of Information requests, the reason for the secrecy is because the politicians realise how unpopular it will be. Instead of being open about it, they would like to have it done and dusted and ready to steamroller through national parliaments rather put it up for debate. TTIP will allow private corporations to sue national governments in special closed courts over policies which they feel might reduce their profits – for example, if the UK government wanted to roll back the increasing privatisation of the NHS brought in by the coalition government. It will lead to lower food safety standards, facilitating trade by reducing EU standards to US levels where US levels are lower, and US standards to the EU level where the latter are lower. So it will adversely affect our day-to-day lives.

Q: What motivated you to go along to the TTIP meeting?

I was asked by 38 Degrees, which is running the anti-TTIP petition, to organise the meeting to make our MP aware of the large numbers which have signed the petition and the strength of feeling against it.

Q: How did Amber Rudd respond?

We’d been told she wouldn’t be available to see us as she would be busy with a constituency surgery. But we were already there when she arrived, so she stopped and talked to us. She made it clear she fully supports the treaty, as we knew. So does the Tory party as a whole, and so, with a few reservations, do many Labour MPs. It’s a clear-cut case where the politicians who are supposed to represent the interests of the people have completely lost touch. TTIP is a case of governments, who are supposed to act in all our interests, abrogating their powers in favour of private commercial interests.

Q: Do you think the petition will make a difference?

It has already caused some backtracking and embarrassed attempts to explain why TTIP is good for us. The more the terms of the treaty are hauled into daylight and brought to people’s attention, the more the opposition grows. The petition remains open, so more people can sign it. (Link to the petition here.)

Q: With social media and the Internet, do you think the people can make more of an impact – and things will be more democratic?

Definitely – this is something that should be out in the open so that everyone can give their opinion. Social media, the internet, the press – they are all means for building opposition to TTIP.

Nick’s overview of his experience

The 30-strong group of local residents, who are among several million signatories to a petition organised by the 38 Degrees campaigning group calling for TTIP talks to be called off, gathered outside Ms Rudd’s constituency office in Silverhill and spoke to Ms Rudd briefly when she arrived for a surgery.

They are concerned that the deal will see the EU obliged to accept lower US standards, for example in food hygiene, and will open the way for multinational companies to sue the UK and other EU member governments if, for example, they take decisions which the multinationals feel disadvantage themselves.

They also question whether it is democratically acceptable that the talks are being held in secret, so that such information as is known has reached the public domain through leaks or Freedom of Information requests.

Ms Rudd has made it clear that she wholeheartedly supports TTIP. When asked why, she replied that, “I think it would be good for the country”. She said that she had taken part in some of the talks herself and wanted to reassure those present that their concerns were misplaced. Nick Terdre, the 38 Degrees supporter who organised the event, replied that these days people didn’t find reassurances from politicians very reassuring.

A petition certificate was handed to Ms Rudd indicating that 1,057 of her constituents have so far signed the petition. In the UK as a whole the number of signatories stands at 502,259 and across the European Union at 3.3 million – making it one of the largest mass petitions ever raised.

Hastings Borough Council has also passed a motion about TTIP, expressing concern that it will threaten its ability to adopt policies promoting social equity and community cohesion and impede it from choosing the most effective way to provide contractual services.

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