This is a video from the event: Clare Says No TTIP, public meeting on TTIP: Temple Gate Hotel, Ennis, Jan 27^th 2016.

Further videos on TTIP: to access the YouTube channel of TTIP Information Network CLICK HERE

Find below:

• notes on presentation by Barry Finnegan (researcher with ATTAC Ireland, rep to TTIP Information Network, lecturer media faculty Griffith College)
• weblinks to further reading and research on TTIP from civil society groups and businesses in Ireland and Europe at the bottom of the page.

At minute: 0.00:
Barry O’Driscoll of Clare Says No TTIP introduces the evening.

At minute: 0.52:
John Higgins of Clare Says No TTIP introduces the plans for Clare County Council to pass a motion declaring County Clare a “TTIP Free Zone”.

• Sign the petition to get County Clare Ireland’s first TTIP Free Zone: CLICK HERE
• See the hundreds of TTIP Free Zones across Europe: CLICK HERE
• Read all about it in the Clare Herald: CLICK HERE

At minute: 4.00
Barry Finnegan’s talk begins
What is TTIP?: The Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership.
What is Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS)?: abolish independence of judiciary and equality before the law; overturn Irish, European and American court rulings; overturn Irish law and European Directives.

At minute: 12.00:
EU Commissions’ proposals for a “reformed” ISDS called an Investor Court System (ICS) are simply a marketing message with no substance.

At minute: 16.38:
ISDS examples from around the world which have overturned court judgements, the minimum wage, drinkable water laws and environmental regulation. Examples of ongoing ISDS cases against a franking ban, cigarette plain packaging, and protection of drinking water sources.

At minute: 24.47:
What is the “negative list”?: all public services, and all laws and regulations are included in TTIP (and CETA) unless explicitly excluded at the start of negotiations.

At minute: 28.23:
How will these free-investment deals be ratified?: May 13^th 2016 will see the EU Council of Ministers vote by QMV on EU-Canada free-investment deal (CETA) similar to TTIP; then EU Parliament will be asked to vote; there will be no vote in the 28 Member State parliaments.

At minute: 32.02:
Dealing with the TTIP myths: no jobs, no growth: EU Commission’s best case scenario for TTIP claims one twentieth of one percent economic growth per year (i.e. 0.05%); extra €545 per annum per family of four per year (i.e. €2.62 each per week); loss of 0.6% of EU jobs.

At minute: 39.32:
Using more sensible economic model, Jeronim Capaldo shows 600,000 job losses and annual wage drops of €4,800 per year due to TTIP.

At minute: 40.35:
TTIP will erode workers’ rights.

At minute: 43.35:
EU’s “precautionary principle” under threat. USA wants it replaced with their “scientific method” (i.e. companies do their own research on chemical and other health and safety issues, their research is not made public, it is not published in peer-reviewed academic journals, even their own scientists do not share research with each other, and the government simply accepts it at fact).
What is “regulatory harmonisation”?: all EU and US standards would be matched; most likely scenario: EU drops to low US farm, food, chemical, workers’ rights standards. Alternative is:
What is “regulatory recognition”?: EU and US recognise each other’s regulations so we could not stop US products being sold in EU even if chemicals in them are banned in EU.

At minute: 48.19:
Similar warnings to these on TTIP, were ignored for NAFTA: 20 years after the 1994 NAFTA free-investment deal: 40% of US medium farmers eliminated; €181 billion U.S. trade deficit with NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada; loss of 1 million U.S. jobs; growing income inequality; displacement of more than one million Mexican small farmers; and over $360 million paid to corporations after ISDS private arbitration tribunal attacks on, and rollbacks of, domestic public-interest policies.

At minute: 49.21:
EU “precautionary principle” used to ban neonicotinoids under threat: where this chemical was banned recently, the bee population recovered; we need bees to pollinate 80% of what we eat.

At minute: 50.47:
TTIP will block climate change regulation: examples of ISDS cases against Spain for taxing fossil fuel profits, and against USA for outlawing Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline.

At minute: 52. 50:
Enforced privatisation of public services: Under CETA and TTIP, only “non-economic” public services will be protected from enforced privatisation. To be an “non-economic” service, (a) no fee can be charged to citizens at any point of consumption of the service, and (b) no private company can be offering that service in the “market”. Fine Gael and Labour have not protected health, education, water, workers’ rights or environmental law from attack under CETA (which is a finished EU-Canada free-investment deal).

At minute: 54.36:
Irish farming to be attacked: (error in presentation: figure of 100,000 animals refers to chickens in sheds, not cattle (see for example CLICK HERE); the number of US beef cattle on operations with at least 500 head grew from 11.6 million in 2002 to 12.1 million in 2012; the average size of a US hog (pig) factory farm increased 68.4%, from 3,600 hogs in 1997 to nearly 6,100 in 2012: (see for example CLICK HERE); US farms are 16 times bigger than EU farms, and Irish farms are smaller again. How can Irish farmers compete with industrial factory farms: half of milk sold in USA comes from just under 4% of farms; 14 US dairy producers represented more than 60% of all dairy sales in 2012; four companies control 85% of beef sold in USA; three companies produce half of the chickens in the USA. European regulations on the use of chemicals, growth hormones and GMOs is the only thing protecting Ireland and Europe from US factory farms imports. TTIP would sweep away these regulations and allow US companies to sue in ISDS tribunals if we try to keep standards high.

At minute: 54.54:
Resistance to TTIP is fertile: over 3.2 million Europeans have signed an online anti-TTIP petition CLICK HERE ;  here in Ireland and across the Europe and the USA, academics, civil society groups and progressive politicians are organising protests, meetings and research to show how bad TTIP will be for our societies, our environment and our democracy. It can, and will be, defeated. (See below for links and more info.)

Talk Ends

==============

SOME IRISH-BASED GROUPS AGAINST AND CONCERNED ABOUT TTIP:
TTIP Information Network: http://ttip.ie/about-our-campaign/    //  https://www.facebook.com/TTIPInformationNetwork
Clare says No to TTIP: https://www.facebook.com/Clare-says-No-to-TTIP-463725097116935/
ATTAC (Ireland): http://www.attac.ie/campaigns/trade-2/
Peoples’ Movement: http://www.people.ie/economy/ttip.pdf
Uplift: https://uplift.ie/ttip/
Irish Congress of Trade Unions: http://www.ictu.ie/press/diary/2014/12/10/ttip-bad-for-democracy-and-good-for-corporations/
An Taisce: http://www.antaisce.org/articles/taisces-and-ttip-transatlantic-trade-and-investment-partnership
Slow Food Movement (Ireland): http://slowfoodireland.com/urgent-action-required-by-all-food-lovers/
Irish Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.ie/content/eu-us-trade-deal-likely-affect-irelands-ability-pass-public-health-laws#sthash.kC18WpQg.dpbs
Irish chefs against TTIP: http://www.arc2020.eu/2015/04/irish-chefs-join-the-stand-against-ttip/
Right2Change: http://www.right2change.ie/right2national-resources
Trade Union Left Forum: http://www.tuleftforum.com/tag/ttip/

SOME EUROPEAN ANTI-TTIP GROUPS:
Corporate Europe Observatory: http://corporateeurope.org/international-trade/2015/08/dont-believe-hype-ttip-not-small-companies
Seattle to Brussels Network: http://www.s2bnetwork.org/tpp-and-what-it-means-for-ttip/
European Public Service Unions: http://www.epsu.org/a/11756
Transnational Institute: https://www.tni.org/en/collection/ttip
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels Office: http://rosalux-europa.info/publications/books/ttip_en/
STOP TTIP (the ECI online petition): https://stop-ttip.org/
ATTAC (International): https://www.attac.org/en/Stories/ttip-resistance-now
Digital Rights Europe (EDRi): https://edri.org/ttip-and-digital-rights-the-booklet/
AK Europa (Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour: http://www.akeuropa.eu/en/ak-europa-regulatory-cooperation-in-ceta-and-ttip.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=2522
European Trade Union Confederation: https://www.etuc.org/documents/etuc-position-transatlantic-trade-and-investment-partnership#.Vq42AFLg8-0

SOME NORTHERN IRELAND / UK -BASED GROUPS AGAINST TTIP:
Global Justice Now!: http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/trade-campaign
Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA): http://www.nipsa.org.uk/NIPSA-in-Action/Global-Solidarity/Campaigns-%28New%29/TTIP
Unite The Union: http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/senior-unite-representatives-in-brussels-demand-meps-turn-up-the-volume-to-protect-nhs-from-ttip/
38 Degrees: https://home.38degrees.org.uk/?s=TTIP
War On Want: http://waronwant.org/ttip
No TTIP: http://www.nottip.org.uk/

EUROPEAN SMALL AND MEDIUUM SIZED BUSINESSES AGAINST TTIP:
German ‘SMEs Against TTIP’ (over 1700 companies have joined as at Nov. 2015): www.kmu-gegen-ttip.de    (for English automatic translation CLICK HERE)
Report commissioned: ‘A Transatlantic Agreement: But at What Cost to SME’s: The potential effects of the United States / Europe Free trade Agreement (TTIP) on local economies and SMEs: http://www.veblen-institute.org/IMG/pdf/smes_and_ttip_vebleninstitute_eng_20_nov_2015.pdf
Austrian SMEs Against TTIP: www.kmu-gegen-ttip.at (for English automatic translation CLICK HERE)
Austrian Farmers Against TTIP: www.bauern-und-baeuerinnen-gegen-ttip.at (for English automatic translation CLICK HERE)

IMPACT OF TTIP FOOD AND FARMING:
Friends of the Earth – Europe: ‘Here are some of the foods produced in worrying ways we could see served up on European plates if TTIP is agreed’: https://www.foeeurope.org/served-by-ttip
Shefali Sharma, Director Agricultural Commodities and Globalization, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: ‘Superbugs a grave global threat by 2030 due to industrial meat production’: http://www.iatp.org/blog/201504/superbugs-a-grave-global-threat-by-2030-due-to-industrial-meat-production#sthash.Z9Akgfqe.dpuf
Bethany McLean, The Washington Post, Book review: ‘The Meat Racket’ by Christopher Leonard: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-the-meat-racket-by-christopher-leonard/2014/02/28/3000c400-934c-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html See also, Bernice Napach, finance.yahoo.com: ‘How 4 companies control almost all the meat you eat’: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/how-four-companies-control-the-supply-and-price-of-beef–pork-and-chicken-in-the-u-s-eat-prices-224406080.html#

JOB LOSSES AND FARM CLOSURES FROM NAFTA:
Lori Wallach, Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch: ‘NAFTA at 20: One Million U.S. Jobs Lost, Higher Income Inequality’: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-wallach/nafta-at-20-one-million-u_b_4550207.html
Karen Hansen-Kuhn, Director of Trade, Technology and Global Governance, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: ‘NAFTA and US farmers—20 years later’: http://www.iatp.org/blog/201311/nafta-and-us-farmers%E2%80%9420-years-later#sthash.mGUyov6y.dpuf

Related Link:   http://www.attac.ie/ttip-explained-by-barry-finnegan-attac-ireland-clare...