Agenda item

The motion was moved by Councillor Sorba and seconded by Councillor Bell.

There was then a debate to which the Councillors Coughlin and Mallory

contributed. The motion was then put to the vote and declared to be

unanimously carried.

RESOLVED that the following motion be agreed:

“This Council resolves to register its opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and

Investment Partnership currently being negotiated between the USA and The

European Union on the following grounds –

1. TTIP limits the freedom of Local and Central government to choose how

they wish to deliver or procure goods and services for the public thereby

undermining our duty to the people who we are elected to represent.  Under

the Treaty it will prove almost impossible to resist increasing demands from

transnational corporations demanding contracts for the delivery of health,

medical and other vital services. The right to regulate the market, including

the labour market, for the public benefit at local or national level on the basis

of political mandates or material circumstances is a key lever of government

in any democracy. Losing this freedom will significantly affect the wellbeing of

the citizens we serve.

2. TTIP endangers necessary environmental, health and safety regulation

designed to protect consumers. The principle of “harmonisation” in the Treaty

is designed to pushdown safeguards to the minimum – e.g  unlimited access

of genetically modified ingredients, chlorine-washed chicken, hormone-

injected beef and endocrine-disrupting chemicals in pesticides currently

approved in the USA but not Europe to become commonplace. TTIP will allow

the importation of cosmetics with more than 1000 chemicals that the EU bans

(to the 11 of the US) and will abandon  the “Precautionary principle”  which

prohibits agents and activities deemed to be dangerous until they can be

proven safe, in favour of the US notion that there should be no ban unless the

damage has already been proven to result.

3. TTIP transfers the authority to deliver judgement on disputes between

elected bodies and commercial organisations from our independent judiciary

to an unaccountable and secret panel of international trade lawyers. The

Investor-State Dispute Settlement allows any foreign investor in a signatory

State to sue elected governments if it feels their actions have disadvantaged

its commercial interests. The panel is not required to publish reasons for its

decisions, there is no right of appeal, and they override national laws and

bypass the courts.

4. Negotiations have been taking place under a cloud of secrecy and under

pressure from a disproportionate number of lobbyists on behalf of

transnational corporations especially those from the financial sector.

5. There has been no assessment of the potential impact on local authorities.

6. There has been no scrutiny of the negotiating texts by local government

and no consultation with local government representatives.

This Council notes that of June 1st 2015, 470 organisations and 1.8 million

individuals throughout Europe have registered their opposition to TTIP by

signing a European Citizens’ Initiative.  The 30 plus UK organisations listed

include War on Want, Friends of the Earth, 38 Degrees, Health Poverty

Action, GMB, Unite the Union, UNISON, NUT et al.

We also note that several sovereign states have been or are being sued by

private corporations, under equivalent treaties, where governments’ public-

minded policies are deemed to threaten their private profits: e.g. America’s

Philip Morris suing Australia for introducing plain packaging of tobacco

products, Egypt being sued by France’s  Veolia for raising the National

Minimum Wage, Quebec being sued for banning Fracking, Germany for its

stance on Nuclear power and Slovakia being sued by Dutch HICC over

changes in its health insurance legislation.

Finally we assert that there is insufficient evidence to support the claims being

made that the Treaty will lead to a bonanza of new jobs and significant

economic growth. The very similar US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement

was followed by not a rise but a fall in US exports and jobs; the North

American Free Trade Agreement led to massive job losses in the US and

Canada.

We ask the Mayor to publicise Lewisham Council’s concerns about TTIP, join

with other local authorities which are opposed to TTIP across Europe and

work with local campaigners to raise awareness about the problems of TTIP.

We ask the mayor to contact the London representatives on the Committee of

the Regions informing them of our concerns.

We also pass on notice of this resolution to, and urge that it is taken note of

by the Minister for Europe, David Lidington MP; the Shadow Foreign and

Commonwealth Secretary Hilary Benn MP; the Leader of the European

Parliamentary Labour Party, Glenis Willmott MEP; and the EPLP

Spokesperson for TTIP and European Parliament Trade Committee member,

Judith Kirton-Darling MEP, Heidi Alexander MP, Jim Dowd MP and Vicky

Foxcroft MP and to all MEP’s whose constituency includes the Borough of

Lewisham.”