"It's hard to know what drives politicians to sell out their people and their country." (5th par. fr. end)
5/6/2016, "The TTIPing Point: Protests Threaten Trans-Atlantic Trade Deal," Der Spiegel, Dinah Deckstein, Simone Salden, Michaela Schiebl
"An unprecedented protest movement of a scope not seen since the Iraq war in Germany has pushed negotiations over the TTIP trans-Atlantic free trade agreement to the brink of collapse. The demonstrations are characterized by a level of professionalism not previously seen."...
On Monday morning, Greenpeace published classified documents from the closed-door [TTIP] negotiations. Even if the papers only convey the current state of negotiations and do not document the end results, they still confirm the worst suspicions of critics of TTIP.
The 248 pages show that bargaining is taking place behind the scenes, even in areas which the EU and the German government have constantly maintained were sacrosanct. These include standards on the environment and consumer protection; the precautionary principle, a stricter EU policy that sets high hurdles for potentially dangerous products; the legislative self-determination of the countries involved, etc. Even the pledge made on the European side that there would be no arbitration courts has turned out to be wishful thinking. So far, the Americans [Obama admin.] have insisted on the old style of arbitration court."...
Added: Oct. 2015, Hundreds of thousands protest TTIP in Germany and elsewhere in Europe:
Image, "Protesters gather to demonstrate against the TTIP trade agreement in Berlin on Saturday. Photograph: Axel Schmidt/Getty Images," via UK Guardian. 10/10/2015, "Berlin anti-TTIP trade deal protest attracts hundreds of thousands," UK Guardian, Chris Johnston
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More from Der Spiegel on TTIP opposition:
"These aren't professional troublemakers -- they're people who don't like to be taken for idiots."
5/6/2016, "The TTIPing Point: Protests Threaten Trans-Atlantic Trade Deal," Der Spiegel, Dinah Deckstein, Simone Salden, Michaela Schiebl
"In the city of Mainz, 150 orchestra musicians play the protest song "We're not Merchandise," a reworked version of Ludwig von Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."...Stefanie Tegeler, 36, a political scientist...says, "I have nothing against free trade, but I do have a fundamental problem with a lack of transparency."...
The EU is planning to implement parts of the agreement even before national parliaments are provided with the opportunity to vote on it.
The German government's secrecy in its TTIP dealings is "not worthy of a democracy," says businesswoman Brigitte Grübler, 46. She's been joined at the meeting by the CEO of a mid-sized company as well as a former top Siemens executive.
A large share of the recruits to the anti-TTIP movement come from the more educated parts of society, as indicated by a survey conducted by TNS Enmid, one of Germany's leading pollsters.
These aren't professional troublemakers -- they're people who don't like to be taken for idiots. "The government has been withholding essential information," one of them chides. "I never would have been allowed to do that in my previous position as an executive.""...
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More on secret non-trade aspects of TTIP: Formerly free people would now be ruled by unelected, unaccountable multinational corporations and global courts. As slaves, we'd be required to pay all their expenses. The entire US political class already views us as global slaves, so they're fine with this:
3/28/2015, "A new US-EU free trade agreement [TTIP] could make countries subservient to corporations," Business Insider, Don Quijones, Wolf St.
"The potentially game-changing trade deal is aimed at radically reconfiguring the legal and regulatory superstructures of the world’s two largest markets, the United States and the European Union – for the almost exclusive benefit of the world’s biggest multinational corporations....
The case had yet to be made for the highly controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), a provision that elevates individual foreign corporations and investors to equal (or arguably superior) status with a sovereign nation’s government. If signed, it would allow companies to skirt domestic courts and directly “sue” signatory governments for compensation in foreign extrajudicial tribunals."...
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Added: On secret TPP trade deal, not much of it is about trade:
1/13/2014, "Noam Chomsky: Obama Trade Deal A 'Neoliberal Assault' To Further Corporate 'Domination'," Huffington Post, Zach Carter, Ryan Grim
""It's not about trade at all, it’s about investor rights....
“It’s very understandable that it should be kept secret from the public," Chomsky said, "why should people know what’s happening to them?...
"It's not secret from the hundreds of corporate lawyers and lobbyists who are writing the legislation. To them, it's perfectly public. ...It's being kept secret from the population.
“It’s designed to carry forward the neoliberal project to maximize profit and domination, and to set the working people in the world in competition with one another so as to lower wages to increase insecurity,” Chomsky said during an interview with HuffPost Live....
“It’s called free trade, but that’s just a joke," Chomsky said."
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