TTIP to benefit US more than EU: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mark Thornton, senior fellow with the Mises Institute, and Brent Budowsky, columnist with The Hill, about the apparent failure of the EU-US negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement.

Negotiations on the TTIP, which aims to create a free trade zone covering 850 million people, started back in 2013. The contentious accord was meant to be a legacy of US President Barack Obama before he leaves the White House.

Washington and Brussels both hoped to finalize the deal before the end of Obama’s second term in January 2017, but the accord has faced growing opposition on both sides of the Atlantic.

Thornton believes that the TTIP free trade agreement is more in favor of the United States than countries in the European Union.

He says these treaties are mainly geared to benefit major corporations, adding that US corporations which are much bigger and already in many more countries, will definitely profit more.

“So the interests of big corporations are being put forward here in terms of US banks and industries, pharmaceuticals, hospital corporations, water service corporations. It is US companies who are thought to be benefiting more as a result of opening some of these markets between the US and the European Union,” he says.  

Thornton, however, is of the opinion that the partnership is not dead at this point and there are “political reasons” behind taking it off the table.  

This comes as German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel has said that Obama’s free trade deal with Europe is going nowhere, stressing that talks with Washington “have de facto failed.”

Thornton advised against misleading assumptions that trade deals like the TTIP are good for the economy in general.

He went on to say that this agreement might increase trade between the US and the EU, but the overall picture was not necessarily one of “economic utopia”.

He believes that trade agreements as such are in part a way to push back moves by the Russians and the Chinese to develop their spheres of influence.

He warned that the trade agreement could turn to a source of “international economic conflict,” because it provided a relationship between the United States and the European Union, leaving out the rest of the world.

The stated goal of the TTIP is to promote trade and multilateral economic growth. But opponents argue that it would only benefit multinationals and harm consumers.

Critics also say under the deal, US corporations could put excessive legal pressure on some EU states; a move that would have a “chilling” effect on legislators, forcing them to water down welfare protections.

Budowsky, for his part, told Press TV that trade-related negotiations like the TTIP are skewed in favor of big businesses and against working people, laborers and consumers.  

He believes the agreements that are endlessly negotiated in secret, end up helping large businesses.

“We have to have an economy that works for everyone. We need trade agreements that work for everyone. What we do not want are trade agreements that are agreed to in secret where the lobbyists and the big business guys get most of what they want,” he said.  

According to Budowsky, given the scale of the economic and political turmoil all across Europe, it is a good thing that negotiations over the TTIP are slowing down.

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