EU standards on the environment and
public health risk being undermined by compromises with the US,
Greenpeace has warned, citing leaked documents.
The environmental group obtained 248 pages of classified documents from
the TTIP trade talks, aimed at clinching a far-reaching EU-US free trade
deal.
Secrecy surrounding the talks has fuelled fears that US corporations may erode Europe's consumer protections.
But the EU's top trade official denied any agenda to lower EU standards.
"I am simply not in the business of lowering standards," said EU Trade
Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem in her blog, after the Greenpeace leak
was published.
TTIP's supporters say a deal would create many new business opportunities.
TTIP
stands for Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. It would
harmonise regulations across a huge range of business sectors, providing
a boost to exporters on both sides of the Atlantic.
The 13th TTIP
negotiating round took place last week and the European Commission says
it hopes to achieve a deal later this year. That could avoid any
political risk posed by the US presidential election in November.
The
EU's chief negotiator, Ignacio Garcia Bercero, said some of
Greenpeace's points were "flatly wrong", and stressed that the leaked
text "is not a reflection of the outcome of the negotiation".
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Mr Bercero said "it is not correct to say the US is pushing for lowering of the level of protection in the EU".
Greenpeace Netherlands says it obtained classified documents covering two-thirds of the areas discussed.
Corporate muscle
"These
leaked documents confirm what we have been saying for a long time: TTIP
would put corporations at the centre of policy-making, to the detriment
of environment and public health," said Greenpeace EU director Jorgo
Riss.
"We have known that the EU position was bad, now we see the US position is even worse.
Greenpeace says the texts reveal that the US wants to replace the EU's "precautionary principle"
for potentially harmful products with the less strict US approach,
which aims to manage risks rather than avoid them altogether.
The precautionary principle can force a manufacturer to prove the absence of danger from a product.
It
applies, for example, to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), whose
possible risks to the ecosystem and the food chain are hotly debated.
The
US permits cultivation of more than 170 GM plants, whereas only one
type - a maize variety - is approved for commercial cultivation in the
EU.
Mr Bercero denied any intention to weaken the precautionary principle.
Greenpeace
says the TTIP texts do not refer to the global commitment to cut CO2
emissions, as agreed at the Paris Summit on global warming. Yet the
European Commission had pledged to make environmental sustainability
part of any TTIP deal.
There
is also widespread concern in the EU about the role of commercial
arbitration courts, independent of national courts, where firms can sue
governments.
It is one of the thorniest issues in the TTIP talks.
There
are fears that big US corporations could put excessive legal pressure
on some EU states. The threat of being sued could have a "chilling"
effect on legislators, forcing them to water down welfare protections,
critics argue.
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