Risks and Opportunities for Consumer Welfare Arising from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Friedrich Ebert foundation, February 2015, 56 pp
http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/wiso/11208.pdf TTIP represents a crisis for democracy and the constitutional state. A parallel private arbitration system allows three corporate lawyers to serve as judges making irrevocable decisions. Philip Morris is suing Australia and Uruguay for lost profits because of warnings on cigarette packages. Vattenfall is suing Germany for 4 billion euros for closing two nuclear reactors. Veolea, a French company and owner of an Egyptian waste disposal company, is suing Egypt for losses from a higher Egyptian minimum wage.
Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIA describes the TTIP as “secret tribunals” where only “foreign investors” can sue. Frank Bsirske Of the German Verdi service union said the TTIP is a “black box” transferring sovereignty from states and communities to corporations. Labor and environmental regulations can be chilled or invalidated as “takings” or “indirect expropriations.” Public interest legislation can be annulled as violations of the “human right to profit.”
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