US Senate blocks TTIP bill

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a mammoth EU-US trade deal, suffered a blow on Tuesday (May 12) , when the US Senate blocked a bill that would enable it and other similar agreements to be rushed through Congress without a full debate.

Although US President Barack Obama pressed his party’s senators to support the bill, nicknamed “fast-track”, only one Democratic senator voted in favour, with 52 voting against.

The blocking of the bill comes on the heels of concerted campaigning and protests from progressive groups including trade unions such as the United Steelworkers (USW), Unite’s partner union in Workers Uniting.

Little to do with trade

As UniteLive has reported, new generation trade deals such as TTIP, TTP (a trans-Pacific trade deal) and CETA (a Canadian-EU agreement) have little to do with trade.

USW international affairs director Ben Davis previously told UniteLive that these newer trade agreements are specifically designed to “facilitate the unregulated flow of capital across borders”, which creates a race to the bottom for environmental and worker protections.

For the UK, TTIP could also mean the final nail in the coffin for the NHS, which may become privatised beyond recognition by American health companies.

Although Tuesday’s blocking of “fast-track” was a rousing success for workers on both sides of the Atlantic, the bill hasn’t entirely gone away.

As the Washington Post reported, a new Senate compromise reached yesterday (May 13) will mean fast-track could be back on track. Even if passed by the Senate, however, the bill faces tougher opposition in the House of Representatives, which may be unlikely to garner enough support for the bill.

Davis explained why fast-track poses such an onerous threat to the successful opposition of race-to-the-bottom trade deals.

“You have to understand these agreements are often 6,000 pages long,” he said.

“With fast-track, you aren’t given any time to look through it. And if even if you did, it’s written in highly technical language – you’re essentially in the situation that you’re pushing something through without understanding any of it,” Davis added.

“Negotiations are then left in the hands of a handful of bureaucrats and several corporate representatives who essentially hold all the cards – they actually have more say in the whole process than our elected officials do.”

Fatal blow?

Unite assistant chief of staff Adrian Weir applauded Tuesday’s success but explained that the fight is not yet over.

“The voting down of fast-track in the US Congress was a great victory for the alliance of unions and social movements campaigning with left of centre Democrats,” he said.

“The elimination of fast-track would severely damage the prospects of both TPP and TTIP progressing but it may not yet be a fatal blow. In Europe we need to keep campaigning to ensure that our MEPs vote down TTIP at the non-binding vote soon to be held in the European Parliament.

“Over and above this, we need to maintain this momentum to halt the proposed deal with Canada, CETA, in its tracks as well,” he added.

If anything, Tuesday’s victory demonstrates that the tide is turning – that sustained campaigning can put enough pressure on elected officials to put a stop to the relentless assault on working people at the hands of global capital.

Stay tuned on UniteLive for more on TTIP as developments unfold this summer.