TTIP Poised to Jeopardize US, EU Regulatory Laws, Say Environmental Groups, Unions
The U.S. and European Union should publish the draft Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) chapters on sanitary and phytosanitary and technical barriers to trade, along with the regulatory cooperation and coherence text, said more than 175 environmental groups, unions and other non-governmental organizations in a May 12 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and European Union (EU) Commissioner Karel De Gucht. The regulatory changes the agreement will mandate will likely force alterations to both U.S. and EU law, and may include “cost-benefit” and “trade impact” analyses for regulation or legislation, said the organizations.
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“We are concerned that these procedures could easily facilitate a roll-back of protection provided by existing legislation, and that they would likely impede the development of new legislation and the implementation of what currently exists,” said the letter. “The top-down coordination of these measures through an institutional framework for transatlantic regulatory cooperation, we feel, would likely become a significant source of delay and preempt a state, a country, or region’s ability to maintain or establish stronger standards.” The organizations, including the AFL-CIO, also requested information on how the leaders would prevent regulatory cooperation provisions from slowing implementation of existing laws and from impeding new legislation. They also asked if the proposed changes to lawmaking would be subject to international dispute resolution "or provide a valid legal basis for lawsuits in either the EU or U.S. challenging the legality of adopted legislation or regulation."