Save NHS from trade deal

David Cameron has so far refused to sign up to a historic pledge to protect the NHS from the EU/US trade deal that could spell the irreversible sale of our NHS.

 
Politicians across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have signed the historic pledge to protect our NHS from being irreversibly sold to US private healthcare companies through the EU trade deal called TTIP.

 
The signatories include Jeremy Corbyn, the new leader of the opposition. The new Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has also now been sent the pledge.

 
The cause of protecting the health service from TTIP has led Northern Ireland’s leaders and their Assembly colleagues to cross the sectarian divide in an historic show of total unity in support of the NHS.

 
The refusal by the Tories to exempt the NHS from the American trade deal flies in the face of legal advice. This confirms that there are clear dangers arising from TTIP that could impact the NHS, unless political leaders are ready to use the veto to deliver a robust carve-out.

 
The UK is able to exempt certain areas from the American trade deal but so far the government is refusing to do this for the NHS, while other countries like Germany are using exemptions.

 
“David Cameron needs to add action to warm words,” said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey. “The leaders of the main political parties across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have signed the historic pledge to protect the NHS from the EU/US trade deal.

 
“Expert legal advice confirms that there are clear dangers arising from TTIP that could impact the NHS unless political leaders are ready to use the veto to deliver a robust carve-out,” he added.

 
“The NHS unites us all,” McCluskey went on to say. “The people of this country do not believe it is right for the NHS to be part of this trade deal.”

 
The full text of the pledge reads, “We the undersigned believe that the provision of public healthcare by the NHS is much too important to be put at risk by the EU-US trade agreement, known as TTIP. In particular:

“TTIP must not restrict the scope for decisions by any level of government, public authority or NHS organisation relating to public healthcare;

“TTIP must not give current or future US investors new rights that they could use to sue any level of government, public authority or NHS organisation because of their policies or actions relating to public healthcare.

“The party leaders who have signed below agree to use the veto to protect the NHS from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) unless the NHS is fully and clearly exempted from the agreement.”

TTIP is being negotiated behind closed doors between the EU and the United States. It’s the biggest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated and threatens to make the sell-off of the NHS irreversible by giving the profits of corporations precedence over national lawmakers. TTIP could give US multinationals, or any firm with American investors, new rights to sue the UK government if it ever tried to take privatised health services back into public hands.