This week, the 8th round of negotiations in respect of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership took place in Brussels. The controversial Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is still suspended; instead this time “Regulatory Cooperation” was among other a topic for discussion. A leaked document shows that these plans provide reasonable grounds for concern. For the third time, a two-day meeting of the civil society and numerous demonstrations accompanied this round of negotiations.

The leaked document reaffirms the concerns of labour representations, consumer associations, NGOs and civil society: the influence of large multinational corporations shall be strengthened further; of course at the expense of citizens. Safety standards, environmental and consumer protection are primarily regarded as trade barriers, which need to be removed. However, “Regulatory Cooperation” will also impact the future. Its objective is also to prevent new rules from being created, which might make trade more difficult. Nevertheless, at the presentation of the results within the scope of a civil society dialogue, the negotiators did not tire to emphasise that by no means their objective was to lower standards. The proposal on “Regulatory Cooperation” will be presented to the public next week. According to the negotiators, another subject of this round of negotiations will be the mutual recognition of qualifications.

Parallel to these negotiations, about 150 TTIP critical representatives from 26 EU Member States as well as the USA belonging to various labour, consumer and environmental organisations, among them the AK, also met for talks.

Further information:

AK Position Paper on TTIP