The Transatlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership (TTIP), currently being negotiated between the
European Commission and the United States government, could open the door for
hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in Ireland.
Yet most people in this country have never heard of TTIP: an
unsurprising fact, because the mainstream media has consistently and
inexplicably failed to cover the issue since formal talks commenced in Washington
over a year ago.
For
those who don’t know, the TTIP, like previous controversial free trade treaties
such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), has a highly
protectionist agenda: it aims to enhance corporate profits by weakening labour
rights and employing stringent deregulation of environmental, health and food
safety laws (including current European restrictions on genetically modified
crops). In Britain, all major trade
unions are opposed to the TTIP, while fears abound that the inclusion of health
and medical services in the treaty will ultimately lead to the permanent privatisation
of the NHS. Ireland can expect a similar
fate of mass privatisation, as well as an influx of unlabelled genetically
modified crops and ractopamine-fed pork from America. This will come as no surprise to those aware
of the ongoing neoliberal agenda of western governments since the era of Reagan
and Thatcher: an agenda which prompted the apt title of Professor Noam Chomsky’s
1999 book Profit Over People.
However,
the most imminent danger posed by the new trade agreement rests in a proposed
provision for an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). The inclusion of the ISDS in the new trade
agreement would give large multinational corporations the right to sue the
government of a host state if a national policy, implemented in the public
interest, has a negative impact on company profits. In other words, state policy introduced by
the will of the people can be challenged legally by a corporate investor if the
company records profit losses as a result of said policy. So, should the Irish government decide to ban
fracking in the interests of public health and environmental safety, the ISDS
would permit a gas company to sue for damages to the tune of millions. An example of the dangers of such unbridled
corporate power can already be seen in Canada, where the gas company Lone Pine
Resources is currently using the ISDS as laid out in NAFTA to sue Quebec for $250
million. The state’s supposed crime was
the introduction of a moratorium on fracking, prompted by valid concerns about
the risks to public health and environmental safety.
The
implementation of an ISDS in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
would represent an EU-wide betrayal of the accepted democratic theory that all
eligible citizens should have an equal share in the proposal, development and
creation of laws. Instead, a scenario in
which foreign corporate companies can expect to be treated as a domestic firm
arises and, as many academics have noted, this would give them rights that far
exceed those of an ordinary citizen in political decision-making. They become, as Chomsky puts it, “immortal,”
unimaginably wealthy citizens with power over political decisions: a terrifying
concept with far reaching consequences for all European citizens.
The
deadline for public consultation submissions on the TTIP (July 13th)
has passed without any coverage by the major broadcasters in this country,
leaving the public largely oblivious to the existence of any risk. Meanwhile comparatively trivial matters like
the Garth Brooks concerts dominated the headlines for days. This fact in itself must raise questions
about just how public the consultation was and just how interested the EU
commission is in listening to the opinions of the masses. Power rests, it seems, with the industrial
lobbyists in Brussels.
