The 10 Ways A Four Letter Word Could Ruin Your Life

What the heck is TTIP? If you don’t know what it is, be afraid, be very afraid - and read on for what you can do about it. TTIP for short, or the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership in full: it’s a complicated name for a dodgy deal between Europe and America.

1) Goodbye NHS, hello permanent privatisation

Via giphy.com

Under the deal future governments could be stopped from rolling back privatisation. So if you want future governments to reverse laws that allow the NHS to be privatised, you'd better start worrying about TTIP.

2) Imagine a world where the profits of healthcare companies decide how we help the sick and the elderly

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If you’d rather not think about that, start worrying!

3) And not just the NHS, that could go for all public services in the UK

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The deal could open up public services to private firms, and could let global corporations sue future governments that tried to reverse the privatisation. Time to say hello to McDonalds schools?

4) In fact, it might open the floodgates to companies suing the UK for risking their profits

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Under the deal, companies could be able to sue our government for laws that protect people over corporations’ profits.

So if you’re hoping for stricter laws for fracking companies and tobacco giants, or for the government to raise the minimum wage sometime soon, you'd better hope this deal is stopped.

5) The behind-closed-doors negotiations are great for business lobbyists’ privacy...

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Politicians won’t get a vote on what the law actually looks like - just a yes/no vote on the final deal. And with negotiations shrouded in secrecy, it’s hard to know what is and isn’t being discussed.

6) But it’s not good news for yours...

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The deal could make it easier for companies to get personal details for commercial reasons, allowing them to get around data privacy laws.

Oh, and it's also likely to remove a rule against US intelligence agencies spying on European citizens. Fun.

7) And most of those getting a say are corporate lobbyists. Think they’ll have your best interests at heart?

Via corporateeurope.org

When TTIP talks started 92% of lobbying came from business lobbyists. Only 4% came from public interest groups. So if politicians don’t have a say, and public interest groups are given the cold shoulder, who’s standing up for ordinary people?

8) Food safety laws in the UK could be watered down

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...including rules about genetically modified crops, pesticides, and chemically-treated meat. For instance, the US National Pork Council wants the EU to approve “lactic acid washes for pork”. If you think that sounds gross, you probably should start worrying about TTIP.

9) Our environmental standards could be threatened…letting in environmentally dodgy products

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US fuel producers want to “harmonize” the EU’s sustainability requirements with those in the USA. And by “harmonize” they probably mean weaken to the lower standards seen in the US.

For example: Oil production is obviously never going to be great for the environment, but the US government is pushing for TTIP to let them export oil to Europe that has come from Canadian tar sands - oil produced with really bad environmental consequences.

10) And it might not be that great at creating jobs anyway!

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Experts say that the benefits trumpeted by big business could be ‘vastly overblown and deeply flawed’. A similar agreement in North America (the NAFTA) actually cost jobs in the US and increased poverty in Mexico!

...and one thing you can do about it!

But DON'T DESPAIR! There's actually way more than one thing you can do about it. But the first thing you can do is visit www.38degrees.org.uk/TTIP. Start by signing the petition and spread the news. Together, people power can fix or scrap this deal.