{"id":7824,"date":"2016-02-23T12:08:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T12:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7824"},"modified":"2016-02-24T12:05:41","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T12:05:41","slug":"ttip-real-and-serious-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7824","title":{"rendered":"TTIP: ‘Real and serious threat’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The government has repeatedly dismissed fears that an EU-US trade deal, currently being negotiated in secret, would threaten the National Health Service.<\/p>\n

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Critics have long warned that clauses contained within the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) could render privatisation of the NHS irreversible by empowering companies to sue governments in secret courts for loss of profits if governments try to take privatised services back into public hands.<\/p>\n

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But today (February 23) one of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s foremost QCs on European law has lent his expertise to the debate \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and he argues that our worst fears are entirely justified.<\/p>\n

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In a legal analysis prepared for Unite, Michael Bowsher QC, a former chair of the Bar Council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s EU law committee, has said that TTIP poses a \u00e2\u20ac\u015breal and serious threat\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 to the NHS because the protections that are supposed to shield public services from rampant privatisation in such trade deals are vague and can easily be manipulated in courts.<\/p>\n

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Bowsher argued that TTIP gives investors new legal rights that would mean that they could seek even more compensation from governments than are now available to them under UK or EU law.<\/p>\n

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Proponents of TTIP have time and again pointed to sovereign governments\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bright to regulate\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, which European trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstr\u0102\u00b6m has assured would be protected and enshrined in TTIP.<\/p>\n

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But Bowsher highlighted that the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bright to regulate\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 already exists \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stopped companies from successfully suing governments for compensation for loss of profits when governments have attempted to regulate in the public interest.<\/p>\n

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If a future government wanted to, for example, repeal the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c legislation that ushered in NHS privatisation \u00e2\u20ac\u201c foreign investors who may have bid on private contracts for NHS services could very easily sue the UK government for damages to their profits and future business prospects.<\/p>\n

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Even if the claim were not successful, Bowsher noted, the threat of such a claim could have a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bchilling effect\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 on any future policymaking that seeks to protect public services from private hands.<\/p>\n

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‘Chilling effect’<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, this \u00e2\u20ac\u0098chilling effect\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is already taking its toll on the NHS, as Unite revealed earlier this month.<\/p>\n

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Unite found that some Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have previously tried to block companies from bidding for work if they use convoluted tax structures. But Bristol CCG is now in the process of scrapping the rules for fear of legal action by global corporations that use tax avoidance structures.<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer Colenzo Jarret-Thorpe noted that this demonstrated how much more at risk the NHS would be under TTIP.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAllowing Google style tax arrangements in the NHS is a genuine national scandal,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe health secretary, Jeremy Hunt has left the door open for\u00c2\u00a0 tax avoiders to scoop up NHS contracts. They can even threaten the NHS with legal action if commissioners put preventative measures in place to ensure companies pay their fair share of tax.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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‘Irreversible privatisation’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorse still the government is doing nothing to stop US investors getting even more rights to litigate against the UK through the trade deal TTIP,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Conservative government holds legal advice on the impact of TTIP on the NHS but has blocked a number of requests to make the advice public. Without action the NHS is on the road to irreversible privatisation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Indeed, the minister responsible for TTIP, Francis Maude, recently admitted that he already holds legal advice about the trade deal and its impact on the health service, but when campaigners asked for this advice to be publicised through freedom of information requests, Maude denied the requests, citing \u00e2\u20ac\u0098legal professional privilege\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

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While it may be unlikely that TTIP will be stopped in its entirety, Bowsher advised that the only way to protect the NHS from privatisation if the deal goes through would be to explicitly exclude it from any of the provisions in the trade agreement.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGiven the substantial risks involved we do not see why a well-advised negotiator would not seek to ensure that the position of the NHS was protected,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe safest course would be for the NHS to be the subject of a specific exclusion contained within the main body of the TTIP text.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So far the UK government has refused to seek any such an exclusion to protect the health service, saying that suggesting the NHS was in danger under TTIP would be \u00e2\u20ac\u015bboth irresponsible and false.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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But Bowsher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legal advice, which Unite is set to present to the government at a meeting with the department for business, innovation and skills today (February 23), will finally put to rest any doubts about TTIP\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s threat to the NHS.<\/p>\n

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Unite has also sent the legal advice to all UK MPs, MEPs, Scotland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s MSPs and Assembly Members from Wales and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

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Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail lambasted the UK government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inaction on TTIP that could threaten the NHS as we know it, especially considering the mounting evidence against the dangers of TTIP.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor too long politicians have done too little to protect the NHS from the threat of irreversible privatisation. Now there is no excuse,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe legal advice is clear,\u00c2\u00a0 TTIP is a real and serious risk to the NHS. Unless the UK gets robust protection, the US private health industry can override the will of Parliament on matters relating to our health.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDavid Cameron has the powers to prevent EU bureaucrats from handing rights over our NHS to America,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Cartmail added.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe European Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmstr\u0102\u00b6m has even offered to change the wording of the TTIP agreement as far back as February last year. If David Cameron does not use the power to exempt the NHS, they will not be able to plead ignorance when TTIP is used to attack the NHS.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read the full legal advice here.\u00c2\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government has repeatedly dismissed fears that an EU-US trade deal, currently being negotiated in secret, would threaten the National Health Service.   Critics have long warned that clauses contained within the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) could render privatisation of the NHS irreversible by empowering companies to sue governments in secret courts for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[59],"wps_subtitle":"Worst fears for NHS justified by top QC ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7824"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7833,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7824\/revisions\/7833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}