Mobilize before it's too late here too... : (
It is the first French region to oppose the future trade agreement between the European Union and the United States. Negotiations are currently underway for a "transatlantic market" which would concern more than 800 million inhabitants and half of the world's GDP (read our survey, Europe-United States agreement: what does the largest free trade area in the world have in store for us?). The Ile-de-France region, whose economy represents 5% of European GDP, adopted on 14 February a deliberation to ask for the negotiations of this Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to be halted [1]. It has also declared itself a “zone outside TTIP”.
This deliberation at the initiative of the Front de Gauche group (Left and Alternative Party) was supported by the EELV group. The Socialist Party did not take part in the votes. "It is a disavowal for all those who have chosen to negotiate behind the backs of the citizens: the European Commission but also President Hollande who has just declared that we had to 'move quickly' on this file to prevent the people from 'get it', highlights the Left Party.
Local authorities directly affected by this trade agreement
This deliberation is reminiscent of those adopted by more than 680 local authorities between 2002 and 2004 against the General Agreement on Trade in Services (AGCS). The municipalities and regions had come together around the network "non-GATS area" and symbolically refused to apply the directives of the World Trade Organization on their territory. According to the Left Party, the trade agreement being negotiated “go even further” than the GATS. “Fundamental public services, as in every free trade treaty, will not be spared at any institutional level”, he warns.
The Left Party fears in particular that the deliberation voted by the Regional Council of Ile-de-France in 2004 marking its opposition to the cultivation of GMOs in open fields, will be called into question. “Companies could, for example, sue local authorities which, like the Île-de-France Region, benefit companies that work for a more united economy and the preservation of our environment” alert the elected EELV. The agreement currently being negotiated provides for the integration of investment protection mechanisms. In concrete terms, transnational companies could lodge a complaint before an arbitration tribunal , against a State or a local authority when a law or regulation hinders their activities.
The Left Front and EELV groups demand that all the texts relating to the negotiations of this trade agreement be made public. And that the Ile-de-France region initiates a major debate on the subject, with local authorities, trade unions, associations, socio-professional organizations and residents. Will other local authorities follow this movement, declaring themselves in turn “zone outside TTIP” ? This is what the Attac France association invites them to do [2] in its brochure for "municipal alternatives".
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