03 May 2016

On 25 April 2016, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) released a TTIP "mythbuster" after a Freedom of Information request by Global Justice Now revealed the government's only risk assessment had warned that the risks of "investor protection" as part of the deal outweighed the benefits. However, a leak of the TTIP documents today by Greenpeace does not seem to square with the government's claims.

TTIP will lower standards

BIS stated that "the EU-US free trade agreement will not remove or lower health, safety, environmental or labour standards".

However, an analysis of the documents provided to the Independent by John Hillary, Executive Director of War Want, suggests that it will.

"The texts include highly controversial subjects such as EU food safety standards, already known to be at risk from TTIP, as well as details of specific threats such as the US plan to end Europe’s ban on genetically modified foods," he explained.

What's more, Hillary added that "the documents show that US corporations will be granted unprecedented powers over any new public health or safety regulations to be introduced in future".

TTIP is a threat to democracy – big businesses will be able to sue the government

BIS reassured the public that "there is a misunderstanding that the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) is a threat to our democracy. The purpose of investment provisions is to protect small and big businesses, individuals and pension funds from discriminatory or unfair treatment by a state. They are not about allowing foreign businesses to sue governments that pass laws which affect profits."

Hillary counters: "If any European government does dare to bring in laws to raise social or environmental standards, TTIP will grant US investors the right to sue for loss of profits in their own corporate court system that is unavailable to domestic firms, governments or anyone else."

Read John Hillary's full analysis at the Independent website here