There’s good reason why the Obama administration and members of congress want trade agreements to remain under tight secrecy: they’re probably bad for you.
Take the case of the EU, who had plans to regulate hormone-damaging chemicals found in pesticides. Yet thanks to secret new trade deals these public safety plans have been dropped because of threats from the U.S.
According to sources such new laws, designed to protect the public from harmful chemicals, would have meant no Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade agreement.
The EU regulations would have banned 31 pesticides containing endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that have been linked to testicular cancer and male infertility.
The insistence on dropping the regulations are part of the powerful U.S. chemical lobby, principally Monsanto and Dow Chemical, who have long cared little for public health if it means profits.
According to sources after the launch of the TTIP negotiations on June 13th 2013, a U.S. business delegation visited EU officials to demand that the proposed regulations governing EDCs should be thrown out.
That about-face comes despite repeated promises from the European Commission that TTIP would not jeopardize EU health and safety standards. A Commission factsheet on Pesticides in TTIP from February 2015 states: “TTIP will not lower the food safety standards for pesticides.”
The revelations show clearly that when trade deals remain secret they are bad for citizens. When your elected officials tell you they know best and not to worry, its probably time to ask lots of questions.
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