TTIP

.

TTIP appears to be a lobbyism-driven assault on sovereignty of the involved nations, an expression of crony capitalism. There's but marginal gains left to be gained by more free trade (less than a one-time boost of 2% GDP if any), but the secrecy of negotiations that largely excluded even our legislative branches strongly hints at it being a package of lobbyist wet dreams that favour special interests over national welfare. TTIP is likely not even a free trade treaty draft, but a regulations-regulating treaty draft and thus an undue limitation of sovereignty.

Here are a couple links related to TPP and thus the conceptionally apparently similar TTIP:

http://www.vox.com/2015/4/17/8438995/why-obamas-new-trade-deal-is-so-controversial

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/tpp-at-the-nabe/

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151106/07051932731/full-text-tpp-released-really-really-bad.shtml

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/6/full_text_of_tpp_trade_deal

http://www.vox.com/2015/11/5/9674560/tpp-trade-deal-text

http://theantimedia.org/our-worst-nightmares-confirmed-full-text-of-tpp-finally-revealed/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tpp-text-release-battles-fine-print-1.3305764

The topic is very large, and these links cover mostly one (my) side of the argument, so feel free to inform yourself in greater detail about the TTIP!

Oh, wait. It's not really possible because TTIP negotiations are kept secret. So far we only saw tiny leaks:

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/23/ttip-eu-negotiators-appear-to-break-environmental-pledge-in-leaked-draft

Let's guess how much time we'll have to see the document before it's getting ratified. The lobbyists of the industries have had years to shape the treaty into their wish list. Consumer protection NGOs, environment protection NGOs and ordinary citizens will likely have a few months at most, and this mostly after the text has been finalised.

In short: I don't think it's a good idea. There's no valid excuse for the level of secrecy (particularly not in light of public demands for more transparency).

The TTIP negotiators give us a hard time to like the treaty with their secrecy, I'll make it easy to oppose them. Feel free to add yourself to almost four million petitioners against it if you want:

To visitors who are not long-time readers: The concept of the blog is not all about military affairs. Military affairs are but one aspect of protection against external threats. To not readily give sovereignty away is another way of defending sovereignty and freedom.

I want our government to be able to regulate for food safety (for example) without fearing the need to pay billions to some foreign corporations only because those claim they'll use future (imaginary) profits and some foreign court agrees.

S O

.