TTIP Protest Day: New Concerns To Be Answered

On the 11th of October, protests against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the United States took place in several major cities in Europe. The concerns expressed by the protestors were mainly related to lowering of EU labour standards, flooding the EU market with genetically modified food, beef full of hormones and chickens treated with chlorine.

Recently certain concerns about the possibility of shale gas drilling in the EU were raised. Some also refer to TTIP as to new ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, that aimed to fight online piracy but was rejected in the end by the European Parliament after massive protests because of transparency issues during the negotiations and fear that the agreement will cause loss of privacy on the internet. However, the intensity of the protests was not as high as expected. Although there were quite large gatherings in some countries, especially in Germany and France, there were no protests at all in other member states, including the Czech Republic.

The EU business community backs TTIP strongly as a mean to eliminate duties, harmonize regulations, increase access to the US market, simplify customs procedures and reduce non-tariff barriers. The partnership also gained its geopolitical level as the situation with Russia and Ukraine escalated, and as the US have recently increased their energy production by enabling shale gas drilling, which might be exported to the EU. The position of the Czech government is supportive to TTIP since the announcement of the negotiations. Although the positive effect on the Czech Republic won’t be as strong as on some bigger member states, the Czech Ministry of Trade sees TTIP as a mean to reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers, ensure access to American public procurement and harmonize regulatory frameworks. Furthermore, the Ministry appreciates the overall positive impact on EU economy, being it creation of new jobs or GDP growth, although moderate.

The protests are about to continue during both this and the next year and it is up to the European Commission and national governments to explain to general public that TTIP is an opportunity, not a threat.