Instead of a lot of theorizing and legalistic mumbo-jumbo, let me try to make clear what TTIP means in practical terms. Hence, a couple of mini-cases, which is no easy task, since my American friends pretty much have no say in anything any more and the few consumer protections they had are continually legislated into oblivion by a pro-big-business Congress. The real impacts, though, for all the diehard States-rightists will be that they will no longer matter because a small town in Oklahoma won't be able to do anything that might discriminate against a company in Poland.
For example, say Smalltown High School has a deal with a local caterer for providing school lunches. The caterer provides jobs for two-dozen employees and procures all its raw materials from local producers. The time comes to renew the contract. It will have to be put up for public tender and this tender must be open to anyone in the trade-agreement area. A Roumanian entrepreneur has to be able to bid on the job just like the local caterer. The local caterer, however, must now conform to international legislation, the local rules no longer apply. Getting in consultants, not the least of whom are familiar with international law, increases the caterer's overhead and has to increase prices. The Roumanian wins the contract, the caterer has to let most of the staff go, so the Roumanians pick them up are just over half of what they were making before. All the raw materials are sourced from discounters worldwide, prepared in Vietnam and frozen before being sent to Oklahoma for thawing and feeding the kids. The other local suppliers feel the pinch, let staff go, but there are no other jobs around. The kids are still getting lunch, but some of their parents are now unemployed or even unemployable.
Or, Midsize City has plans to develop a new shopping mall just outside of town. The plans are for 500,000 sq. ft. of retail space and A&B, a Swedish clothier has signed a long-term lease for 30,000 sq. ft of space. Complications in the implementation arise and the mall will end up being smaller than originally planned. In negotiating with all the prospective tenants, A&B's square-footage gets reduced to 10,000 sq. ft. Less space, less profit over the 25-year lease, so they sue the city for the expected profits over the duration of the lease. The suit, however, cannot be argued in local or state courts, rather it will be referred to an independent court organized under the terms of the trade agreement. Midsize City loses, but is broke because with money spent on legal fees and compensation, it no longer has any money to complete the mall, and so it now gets sued by everyone involved because they all expected to make money on the deal.
Unrealistic scenarios? Not at all. In both cases, should things really go sour, I don't doubt for a minute that a major player -- perhaps a major fast-food chain in the first scenario or a real-estate hedgefund in the second one -- jumps in to fill the void. And we all know, in the end, just how well that works out.
For all of you who think that government is worthless anyway, just who are you going to turn to for help? For those of you who think that the local government should at least care about the local citizenry, what support can it offer? For those of you who think that some form of governance is necessary to ensure the safety and security of the community, what does the community even have to say? No, it won't happen right away and it won't happen all at once but sooner or later, everything described here will come to pass and there won't be a thing you can do about it.
Does your health insurance mandate buying generic medications? After TTIP, patents can be held forever, no more generics, except for what's on the market at the time of the ratification. In fact, all intellectual property will always belong to the property holder and we know how well that works out for small companies and individuals now.
It's up to you. You can sit back, do nothing, and take whatever comes whenever it comes your way, but the past weekend made exceedingly clear to me that big business has anything but my interests at heart, and they've got the best allies money can buy.
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