The TEEU and NIPSA trade unions have passed motions calling for a campaign of opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a proposed trade deal between the US and the EU.
The stated aim of TTIP is to provide a boost to the US and EU economies, and create jobs for citizens. However this would be achieved by pushing down workers’ pay and conditions of employment. The TTIP is about far more than trade. The agreement under discussion will also tie governments’ hands in many areas that are only loosely related to trade.
TEEU general president, Frank Keoghan, has warned: “Both sides in the TTIP negotiations have made clear their intention to use TTIP to get access to what is described as ‘public monopolies’; that is, public utilities including water”. He added: “These services would then be vulnerable to greater outsourcing and private tendering for service delivery and eventually, to privatisation. TTIP would open up public procurement contracts to the private sector, meaning that social, environmental or ‘public good’ goals in public procurement would be removed.”
NIPSA general secretary, Brian Campfield, has highlighted the threat TTIP will pose to the NHS. He said: “The agreement if implemented will undermine the power of elected governments and could open the way to further and extensive privatisation of the NHS.”
