Trans-Atlantic trade deal face race against clock and rising Czech criticism
TTIP, short for the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, is not a topic which makes many headlines in the Czech Republic or excites much debate outside the business community. But the deal, described as the biggest ever trade opening agreement ever, is now entering a crucial phase and some Czech citizens’ groups and NGO’s are calling for more answers about the evolving agreement and on the Czech government stand about it.
The target has been to get most of the deal wrapped up before US president Barack Obama leaves office at the start of 2017. With a new incoming US president in 2017 as well as key elections in that year in Germany and France, the feeling is that the agreement could get caught up in a lot of complications if that aim falls through. At least two or three years could be needed before the deal is ripe for conclusion again according to some experts.
In the Czech Republic, TTIP is only beginning to make waves. On the one side there appears to be solid government backing for the deal. Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka highlighted the agreement this month as one means for pulling the EU and US closer together.
But more critical opinions are also being voiced. This week a group of NGO’s including the legal watchdog, Iure, and local branch of Greenpeace sent off a petition and challenge to Czech Prime Minister Sobotka calling for him to push for the negotiations and results to be open.
“We need transparency and more transparency in the negotiations and more public debate on what is exactly the content of this agreement.”
Helena Svatošová is one of the leaders of the Iure organization and outlined the details of the petition and challenge.
“In this call to our government we are demanding and generally saying we need transparency and more transparency in the negotiations and more public debate on what is exactly the content of this agreement.”
The European Commission says TTIP is unprecedented in the amount of information being made public. But its opponents argue that the openness so far is mostly a reaction to their demands and that is still does not go far enough. Helena Svatošová again:
“The transparency or openness at this moment is just the result of the biggest citizens’ movement ever for transparency. It is not just the will of the European Commission. And it is still insufficient because this is not just a trade and investment agreement, it is an integration agreement. Some studies of the impact show that it could lead to the disintegration of the European single market in favour of some trans-Atlantic flow of goods and investment. So, I think there should be full transparency.
“We don’t ask to get access to currently negotiated proposals and so on but we want to see parts that are already set and negotiated because we really want to avoid the situation mentioned by Senator Václav Láska that we could just have something on the table and asked to take it or leave it. This results in really big pressure on decision makers just to adopt it.”
“I think that these negotiations are certainly not open. On one hand I can understand the position in that when you are negotiating a major agreement it cannot be completely in the open. But the current situation is that only some people in the European Parliament are able to find out about the current state of negotiations and even then under special circumstances. When you ask about the state of ongoing negotiations, the information eventually comes but around 90 percent of the information is blacked out. So there is very, very little information and even some of the basic facts are lacking such as if the agreement will have to be approved just by the European Parliament or by national parliaments as well. There is no basic information on how the arbitration system will function. I don’t think that the negotiations are open, far from it, they are very, very closed.
“It’s true that the information that does come out leads me to the conclusion that this document will not be very favourable or acceptable for the Czech Republic. I am trying though to put off that conclusion until, for example, I am able to get 10 basic facts about these negotiations. Until that happens all I can do is appeal for these negations to be transparent. I cannot say that this is bad because the basic details have not been put forward.“
“We could just have something on the table and asked to take it or leave it. This results in really big pressure on decision makers just to adopt it.”
What the senator fears most is the a deal behind closed doors is sealed and governments will be faced with a take it or leave it fait accompli with pressure to tow the European Commission line that everyone is a winner with such a deal.
Helena Svatošová says Members of the European Parliament have been allowed to see some of the completed texts following negotiations but only under strict secrecy conditions.
“The rules are really strict. There is a special room where you can go in but without any devices such as your mobile phone and you have to sign a declaration promising not to publish information. But this is still not open to all of the decision makers who should decide later on the agreement as a whole. I think it should be open to all elected representatives.”
Iure’s position, unlike that of the senator, is basically opposed to TTIP as it now stands. She says from the available information it appears that TTIP is following close in the tracks of the alrady negotiated trade deal with Canada, CETA. She argues that this already presents a danger that it will roll-back a lot of existing EU legislation which is in the public interest.
The CETA deal should be ratified this year and come into effect in 2017. It’s not surprising then that Iure has a low opinion of the backing voiced by Prime Minister Sobotka for the ongoing EU-US talks.
“I think it is a very naïve attitude. The purpose of this call is to raise citizen’s voice and to know the risks of this agreement and there really are risks.
The local Czech branch of Greenpeace admits that it has mostly taken a back seat to its international organisation over TTIP but has been provoked into action by the Czech government’s inability to give guarantees over the final deal. Jan Freidinger is campaign manager for the local branch of the environmental group.
“Now they are completely against TTIP saying that they don’t see any benefits, they don’t trust in the negotiations, and the risk of lowering environmental, ecological, and social standards is really high. That is why Greenpeace International is against TTIP. We joined this activity because we have been campaigning for strong environmental protection, not only for Czech but also European citizens, for decades. And we have never heard from Czech politicians that they will guarantee that this treaty will not affect current standards. So that is actually why we signed and we helped to create this appeal or petition in order to get a reply from Mr. Sobotka, our prime minister.“
“We have never heard from Czech politicians that they will guarantee that this treaty will not affect current standards.”
Freidinger was previously involved in support for the European chemicals legislation Reach, which also meant that many US companies had to come clean about the chemicals used in their products or face export bans to the European Union. He says there are already signs that major business lobbies in the US would like to use TTIP to challenge European legislation and roll back aspects of it which hinder their export options or lead to extra costs.
