MEP CANDIDATE LOBBY GUIDE 2014
MAKE TRADE WORK FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET
TAKE BACK THE POWER: MAKE TRADE WORK FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET ABOUT THIS GUIDE On Thursday 22 May this year, people across Europe will be asked to vote for candidates to represent them at the European Parliament. The European Union (EU) is now wholly responsible for trade agreements, so the Parliament has a key role to play in making sure EU trade is fair and sustainable. This guide will help you to lobby your election candidates to promote trade justice. With trade deals in the pipeline with some of the world’s poorest countries, as well as with the US, and companies using investment rules to challenge government policy making, this is a key time to demonstrate our opposition to trade deals which are giving more and more power to big business. It is also an opportunity to promote alternative trade policies which work for people, and the environment.
ABOUT TJM The Trade Justice Movement is a coalition of organisations, including trade unions, aid agencies, environment and human rights campaigns, fairtrade organisations, and faith and consumer groups. Together, we are campaigning for trade justice – not free trade – with the rules weighted to benefit people and the environment. The movement is supported by more than 60 member organisations that have over 6 million members. We believe that everyone has the right to feed their families, make a decent living and protect their environment. But the rich and powerful are pursuing trade policies that put profits before the needs of people and the planet. To end poverty and protect the environment we need trade justice, not free trade. www.tjm.org.uk twitter: @tradejusticemov The Trade Justice Movement is part of the Alternative Trade Mandate Alliance – a network of 50 organisations from across Europe representing farmers, workers, environmental campaigns, human rights advocates and fair trade networks. The alliance has, through a participatory process, developed a set of visionary proposals as an alternative to the EU’s current trade and investment policy.
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CONTENTS Introduction: Why we need to take back the power
1
Take action
2
Lobbying your MEP candidates
3
Background to Europe’s unfair trade and investment deals
5
The alternatives
7
Questions and answers
8
Hustings questions
10
Glossary
11
Lobbying checklist
12
Further info and resources
13
The candidate pledge is included in the paper version of the pack or you can download it from www.tjm.org.uk/tbtp
INTRODUCTION
Trade could: • Generate jobs, grow economies and provide a sustainable way to lift millions out of poverty. • Promote human rights, women’s rights, labour standards and environmental protection.
The Trade Justice Movement is calling for a stop to ISDS. There are a number of alternatives that companies could use, such as insurance. These and other alternatives, which put human rights and environmental sustainability first, are set out in the Alternative Trade Mandate.
• Help curb the climate crisis. • Support people to share their products, skills and creativity. But the EU is currently negotiating trade deals that: • Secure big profits for European companies at the expense of people and the environment. • Encourage the erosion of human, labour, and environmental rights. • Restrict a country’s ability to provide food for its people. • Threaten vital public services. • Destroy jobs, small scale industries and livelihoods of small farmers. • Leave us prone to global economic crises. It can have a devastating effect on communities in developing and developed countries.
COMPANIES SUING GOVERNMENTS FOR LEGITIMATE POLICY DECISIONS Trade and investment deals now commonly include rules which allow companies to sue governments. This directly challenges governments’ democratic policy making and costs them millions, sometimes billions of dollars. The mechanism which companies use to do this is InvestorState Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ISDS allows companies to bypass national courts and sue through secretive international tribunals, where interpretation of the usually vaguely worded treaties is left to three arbitrators, often commercial lawyers. Companies are suing for millions, sometimes billions of dollars of public money. ISDS: In response to an extensive, locally led campaign, the Indonesian government withdrew mining licenses which would have led to the destruction of a national park, home to nearly 5,000 orangutans. In response, UKbased Churchill Mining is suing Indonesia for $2 billion it claims is owed as compensation for asset seizure.
What is the Alternative Trade Mandate (ATM)? The ATM is the result of a large group of organisations and individuals asking, ‘How do we make trade work for people and planet?’ It is a set of visionary proposals that provide alternatives to the current EU trade and investment rules.
For more information about trade deals, ISDS and the Alternative Trade Mandate see p. 6-8.
OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE MAY 2014: The May European Parliamentary election presents a key moment in which campaigners can make a real impact. All 28 member states will be going to the polls to elect their Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). It is a great opportunity for us to highlight our opposition to EU’s unfair trade and investment deals, to promote engagement with alternatives and to call MEPs to take back the power! AUTUMN 2014: A new European Commission will be appointed providing an important opportunity for the EU to rethink its trade policy and adopt a new approach.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? You can help by contacting your local candidates for the European Parliamentary elections, either by taking our eaction, sending a letter, email or arranging a face-toface meeting with your MEP candidates, and urging them to sign the Take Back the Power pledge. The pledge calls on them to challenge Europe’s trade strategy and to make trade work in the interests of people and the environment. This pack will give you all the information and resources you need to effectively lobby your local candidates on this issue.
www.tjm.org.uk
We need your help to convince UK MEP candidates to take back the power, challenge unfair corporate rights in trade deals and to promote alternatives that put people and the environment first.
WHAT SHOULD I ASK MY MEP CANDIDATES TO DO?
Go to the campaign page of our website and take action by emailing the Take Back the Power pledge to your MEP candidate. Share the action on facebook, twitter and email. Alternatively, you can download the pledge and a sample letter and write to your candidates. Encourage your friends and family to take the action.
Ask your candidate to sign the pledge. You can either email it to them via our website [insert link] or you can print a copy from our website [insert link] to send via the post or give it to them in person at a hustings. If you do the action via our website, TJM will automatically receive a notification that the pledge has been sent. If you ask your MEP to sign the pledge in person, please send it back to the Trade Justice Movement office at the address on p. 13.
Tweet your MEP candidates encouraging them to sign the pledge. Follow @TradeJusticeMov for inspiration.
A list of MEP candidates can be found on TJM’s website [insert link].
IF YOU HAVE AN HOUR:
TIMELINE: MARCH–MAY
IF YOU HAVE 10 MINUTES:
Make an appointment to visit one or more of your MEP candidates and ask them to sign the pledge available as an insert in this pack or downloadable at www.tjm.org.uk Or attend a local hustings (see p10 for example hustings questions) and ask the candidate to sign the pledge at the end of the meeting.
WHAT ARE WE CALLING FOR?
Contact your MEP to encourage them to sign the pledge. Attend a local hustings and ask your candidates about trade justice. Write to your MEP candidates to arrange a meeting.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
The Trade Justice Movement is calling on MEPs to pressurise the European Commission, who negotiate trade and investment deals on the EU’s behalf, to:
TJM will provide updates on which MEP candidates have signed the pledge on our website and we will also engage with candidates to provide them with information to persuade them to act.
• Remove unfair corporate rights which allow companies to sue governments for public money (investor-state dispute settlement).
After the election, TJM, along with our allies in other European member states, will put pressure on elected MEPs to act.
• Ensure that human and labour rights take precedence over corporate rights. • Ensure genuine participation of civil society in future trade negotiations. • Consider and engage with alternatives to the EU’s current trade and investment regime, such as those set out in the Alternative Trade Mandate.
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TAKE BACK THE POWER: MAKE TRADE WORK FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET
MEP CANDIDATES KEY FACTS • Each candidate who is successfully elected will become a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) – the European version of an MP.
WHICH MEP CANDIDATES SHOULD I TARGET?
• MEP candidates are members of a UK political party (with the exception of a handful of ‘independents’). Their political parties are also members of EU-level political groups, which are collections of like-minded political parties that work together to bring initiatives to the Parliament.
As MEPs represent a regional area, you can lobby any of them in your constituency. The e-action will send the pledge to all the candidates in your region. If you are contacting candidates directly a list of the top 5 MEP candidates per party is available on at www.tjm.org.uk. They are in order of the ranking assigned to them by their political party. Candidates near the top of the list are more likely to get elected than those near the bottom, so contact them first.
• The UK is divided into 12 regions. Each region is represented by three to ten elected MEPs depending on the size of the population.
To see who your current MEPs are you can check the following website and click on the ‘MEPs’ icon www.europarl.europa.eu
• Voters do not vote for individual candidates, rather they vote for a political party. Each party puts forward a ranked list of candidates (called a regional list) and the electorate vote for one of these lists. Existing MEPs who choose to stand again tend to be towards the top of their party’s list. The parties are then allocated a number of MEPs according to their share of the vote.
The most influential MEPs with regard to trade policy are those who sit on the International Trade (INTA) and Development (DEVE) Committees, as well as the UK leaders of their party in Europe, for example, the leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP). There will also be leaders for the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, etc.
• If elected as an MEP, as well as participating in debates and voting on EU policies and laws, they will be likely to serve on at least one committee of the European Parliament. • MEPs gather their own information and can make up their own minds about key European policy issues. They listen to people who lobby them and can be persuaded by good arguments.
CHECK IF YOUR MEP CANDIDATE HAS BEEN LOBBIED If you want to write a personal email to your MEP candidate or arrange a meeting, check TJM’s website to see if they have already signed the pledge. Or send an email to mep.lobby@tjm.org.uk with details of the MEP candidate(s) you are planning to meet and which region you live in. We will then email you back with advice on which candidates in your area have not yet signed the pledge. If the candidate you wanted to target has already signed the pledge, send them an email thanking them and explain why you think the issues are important. A sample ‘thank you’ email is available at www.tjm.org.uk.
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1 SETTING UP A MEETING MEP candidates will be busy on the campaign trail in the run up to the European Parliamentary elections and so it is advisable to set up a meeting well in advance. To organise the meeting, it is best to start by writing a letter or sending an email explaining what you are concerned about and requesting a 30 minute meeting. You can use the template letter available at www.tjm.org.uk. Give them two weeks to respond, and if they don’t, then follow-up with a telephone call.
2 WHAT TO SAY DURING THE MEETING • Explain why you are concerned about the current direction of EU trade and investment policy (see p5–7 for more information). • Explain that you are supporting the European-wide campaign to stop Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) – the provision in trade and investment deals that allow companies to challenge democratic processes by suing governments. Explain that you are campaigning as part of the UK Trade Justice Movement, a coalition of over 60 organisations with over 6 million individual members who are concerned about trade justice. • Ask the MEP candidate if they will support a review of European trade and investment policy if they get elected as an MEP, and if they say yes, ask them to sign the pledge as a public commitment to this. • If they say yes – thank them, and get the pledge signed.
3 AFTER THE MEETING a If your MEP has signed the pledge, please post it to TJM (address at back of pack). b Send an email to mep.lobby@tjm.org.uk or write to us at TJM to let us know how it went and whether your MEP candidate signed the pledge, so that we can keep our records up to date. c It is a good idea to send a follow-up letter thanking the candidate for the meeting and briefly summarising what you discussed and what the outcome was. Please remind them of the commitments that they made to take action in the European Parliament if elected.
4 GETTING LOCAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA COVERAGE If you think your candidates need more persuading, you may want to use local and social media coverage to help publicise the campaign. A template press release which you can adapt to use locally is available on the TJM website. You could also adapt this into a letter to the editor to send to your local paper. Use all the various social media platforms you have available to promote the campaign. For example, share your news on facebook or twitter by tagging your friends to draw others into the conversation. Suggested twitter hashtags: #EPElections #takebackthepower
• If they say no – thank them for their time, say you hope they might reconsider, and say that you would be happy to meet again at a later date to discuss the issues further. Try to identify their specific reasons for not signing and please tell us if they do identify specific reasons.
TAKE BACK THE POWER: MAKE TRADE WORK FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET
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BACKGROUND
For nearly 20 years, the EU has negotiated trade deals through the World Trade Organisation (WTO). There are many problems with the WTO system, but one of the positive things it can do is to allow all members to have a say about how they want world trade to work. In recent years, developing countries have begun to say 'no' to proposals, from rich groups of countries like the EU and US, that they feel would damage their economies. Unable to get what they want through the WTO, the EU started to negotiate deals directly with countries or regions. This undermines the spirit of the WTO (everyone having a voice and equal say), leaves poorer countries in a much weaker negotiating position and means they are more likely to be coerced into unfair deals.
WHY ARE THE EU TRADE AND INVESTMENT DEALS UNFAIR? EU trade and investment deals are heavily biased in favour of big companies who want to access new markets and resources to maximise their profits. But the deals could have disastrous impacts on jobs, livelihoods, human rights and the environment, particularly in developing countries. The EU’s approach to trade contributes to and locks in policies that: • Force farmers worldwide to sell at prices below the cost of production Trade liberalisation (the opening up of local markets to foreign imports) has meant food produced by smallscale farmers in poor countries is in direct competition with highly-subsidised imports from regions like Europe. This forces farmers to sell below the cost of production, threatening their livelihoods and increasing poverty. When small-scale local food production is destroyed, countries become reliant on unsustainable, industrialised food production and vulnerable to hikes in global food prices. • Increase the downward pressure on wages and labour rights Trade rules allow companies to move their money around the world quickly. This means they can move production from one country to another in search of the most favourable conditions, or threaten to move if unions and governments try to improve working conditions. As a result, current trade and investment rules put workers around the world in competition with each other, forcing governments to engage in a race to the bottom on labour rights, job security, wages and taxation.
• Destroy local industries in developing countries Historically, rich countries protected their industries while they developed, using things like taxes and regulation, until they were ready to compete on global markets. Many countries targeted by the EU for trade deals still need time before their industries are ready to compete. EU trade deals force them to open their markets too soon. This means poor countries are prevented from developing sectors that are more lucrative or create jobs. • Promote and lock-in the privatisation of essential services Public services play an important role in ensuring everyone can access basic requirements like water, healthcare and energy. Examples from around the world demonstrate that privatisation can lead to spiraling costs and deterioration in services. Countries must be allowed to choose the best way to provide services, and not be forced into a 'one-sizefits-all' model. • Hamper access to life-saving medicines and technological innovation Stricter rules on things like patents are written into trade agreements so that companies can protect their profits on things they say they have invented. But these rules allow companies to put patents on things like seeds, essential medicines and technology, all needed to ensure access to food, deal with diseases like malaria, and tackle climate change. This drives up costs by giving one company the ability to set whatever price it chooses. • Damage the environment by encouraging increased production, consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases International trade and investment agreements are driving the growth of energy-intensive sectors, like car manufacturing and the expansion of industrialised agriculture, which fuel greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the destruction of forests and seas. Trade deals also force developing countries to remove restrictions on exports on raw materials, like timber, making it harder for developing countries to protect the environment. • Create financial instability. Trade and investment deals promote the liberalisation and deregulation of finance. This contributed to the recent global financial crisis which caused falling wages and increased unemployment around the world. Yet the EU has not changed its position, still calling for trade deals to include rules that cause financial instability.
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EXCESSIVE CORPORATE POWER: A LEGAL TRADE MONSTER GOLD-PLATED RIGHTS FOR BIG COMPANIES Trade deals and international investment agreements provide companies with gold-plated protections (often referred to as investor protection) and far reaching powers with which to challenge democratic policy making. A mechanism referred to as Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) allows companies to sue governments in response to laws and policies intended to protect the public interest. The tribunals take place behind closed doors where national laws have no weight and politicians no power to intervene. According to the UN, in 2012, investor-state tribunals decided 70% of such disputes in favour of the investor, ordering taxpayers to pay billions of dollars in compensation.1 Irrespective of whether companies are successful, the cases cost countries money they can ill afford, with legal fees often running into the tens of millions. The Philippines spent $58,000,000 defending just two cases, the equivalent of the annual salary of 12,500 teachers.
UNDERSTANDING ISDS AND THE POWER THAT TRADE AND INVESTMENT DEALS GIVE BIG COMPANIES What would happen if every time a government changed a policy that increased our living costs – for example by increasing VAT, as happened recently – we as citizens demanded compensation? The costs would mean no government could ever make policy changes. This is exactly what ISDS does. It freezes the rules in time, so that if a government wants to change anything and it affects company investments, they have to compensate them, even if the changes have come about through public and democratic processes. Worse than that, the cash payments mean that ordinary people pay this compensation via taxation and there is no equivalent process for people to hold companies to account.
It does not just affect poor countries
Ecuador Chevron was ordered by an Ecuadorian court to pay US $18 billion to in clean up contamination t. res the Amazonian rainfo ted The company has initia to arbitration, using ISDS, lity avoid taking responsibi for the damage and for 2 paying the bill.
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Tobacco giant Philip Morris has sue d Australia over legislation that wou ld oblige them to use plain packaging on cigarette packets. Vattenfall, a Swedish energy firm, is seeking $3.7 billion from Germany following a democratic decision to phase out nuclear energy. A US company, Lon e Pine, is suing Canada for US$250 million after the country imposed a moratorium on shale gas extracti on (fracking) in Quebec over environmental concerns.
EU-US deal – potential impact on the NHS The EU is currently negotiating a deal with the US (the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership). It is proposed that the deal will include ISDS. At the same time the UK Health and Social Care Act 2012 gives private companies much greater access to the provision of NHS services. If a future UK government wanted to change this, the ISDS clause would mean a future government would be at risk of being sued by the powerful US health industry, potentially for millions of dollars. The threat of this kind of payout is on its own is enough to make governments think twice about policy change.
1
IIA Issue Note, Recent Developments in ISDS, UNCTAD, 2013, http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/webdiaepcb2013d3_en.pdf
2
Corporate Europe Observatory and Institute, Profiting from Injustice: How Law Firms, Arbitrators and Financiers are Fuelling an Investment Arbitration Boom, 2012, p. 25, http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/publications/profiting-from-injustice.pdf
THE ALTERNATIVES International trade does not have to work this way. It can be about exchange, with people and regions equitably sharing their products, skills and creativity. The EU must take a new approach to trade and investment. MEPs must reclaim the power from big business and ensure trade benefits people and the environment.
The EU must also engage in alternatives such as those set out by the Alternative Trade Mandate (ATM) Alliance. They propose that an alternative EU trade and investment deal should: • Protect and promote human rights and labour rights. • Allow countries, particularly poorer countries, to regulate trade so that is supports sustainable development .
• Immediately remove ISDS from trade deals and investment agreements.
• Respect and promote food sovereignty, meaning people have the right to define and control their own local food systems making sure their community’s food is healthy and accessible to everyone.
• Ensure international frameworks promoting social, labour human and women’s rights and standards take precedence over corporate interests in future deals and agreements.
• Allow governments to hold companies to account for the social and environmental impact of their operations, whether in the global south or other places.
• Ensure genuine engagement of civil society organisations in discussions about trade and investment policy.
• Produce stable and decent income for producers and workers and affordable prices for consumers.
To do this the EU must:
• Exclude public goods such as water, health and education. • Provide different rules for poor countries, in recognition that there is not a level playing field for global trade, and to support them to achieve fair and sustainable development. • Promote the exchange of, and free access to, knowledge e.g. through open source systems, seed exchange initiatives or patent pools, and open licensing to promote innovation and access to medicines. For more details and to view the proposals made by the Alternative Trade Mandate see Trade: time for a new vision available at www.alternativetrademandate.org.
TAKE BACK THE POWER: MAKE TRADE WORK FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET www.tjm.org.uk
Suggested answers to questions Why are we targeting European Parliamentary candidates when it is the European Commission which sets the EU’s trade policy? Since 2009 the European Parliament has what is called the power of ‘co-decision’ for trade. This means that the Parliament now has equal decision-making power with the Council (where European governments are represented) and can reject trade deals if they are convinced that they will be damaging. MEPs are also able to scrutinise trade deals through specific committees and can put pressure on the trade Commissioner, who will be appointed in Autumn 2014.
Why are you targeting work at the European level rather than the UK level? The UK is a member of the EU and trade negotiations with other countries are conducted as a bloc through the EU’s Directorate-General of Trade, or ‘DG Trade’. DG Trade develops trade strategies and undertakes trade negotiations on behalf of the entire EU. The UK is just one of 28 countries within the EU and while the UK is influential, it cannot unilaterally determine trade policy.
Why are you against trade, surely it is the only way to bring development and prosperity to poor countries? We are not against trade and we are certainly not campaigning for the EU to stop trading. Trade is the way that goods and products are distributed around the world. It is an important way of overcoming local, regional and national scarcity, and can also generate jobs and support livelihoods. Trade can play an important role in alleviating poverty and improving peoples’ quality of life. However, trade is a means to an end rather than an end in itself, and in order to achieve the objective of helping to reduce poverty, increase development, and improve peoples’ lives and livelihoods, it needs to be regulated by governments. Trade rules must take into account the power imbalances in the world, and make sure that the system is not exploited by powerful companies at the expense of people and the environment.
The European Union places a high priority on achieving development and environmental objectives, why are you concerned about its trade policy? Campaigning organisations like the members of the Trade Justice Movement are concerned about the EU’s trade and investment policy because it conflicts directly with the EU’s wider commitments to sustainable development and poverty alleviation globally. The EU’s 2006 Sustainable Development strategy asserts that ‘sustainable development’ – development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs – is an overarching objective of the EU. Yet the EU’s approach to trade and investment deals often undermines the ability of developing country governments to develop their economies, reduce poverty and protect the environment.
If the EU changes its trade and investment policy, will it harm Europe’s competitiveness and damage jobs and industries here in the UK? The EU, and the UK in particular, have already undertaken considerable liberalisation. It is therefore unlikely that further measures would significantly increase competitiveness. However, trade deals, especially with countries like the US, may prevent us from deciding how we want our countries to run: from introducing rules to improve the way our banks do business, to deciding how we want our health service to run, or maintaining strong environmental regulations.
Doesn’t investor protection, like ISDS, create incentives for investment and therefore help to drive growth? The European Commission claims that “investment protection plays a fundamental role in promoting and securing economic growth in the EU” – because it reduces the risks associated with investing.3 However, a review of research into the likely benefits of investor protection shows that the vast majority of companies do not take investment agreements into account when determining where - and how much - to invest abroad’.4 Due to the lack of economic benefits alongside enormous political and budgetary risks, some governments are revisiting the investment protection offered in trade deals and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITS). A South African Government official said “We do not receive significant inflows of FDI [foreign direct investment] from many partners with whom we have BITs, and at the same time, we continue to receive investment from jurisdictions with which we have no BITs. In short, BITs are not decisive in attracting investment’.5
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TAKE BACK THE POWER: MAKE TRADE WORK FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET
you may get asked by your MEP candidate No one is forcing developing countries to sign up to these deals, so why are you campaigning against the deals? Some developing country governments, including Bolivia, Ecuador, Nigeria and Senegal have taken a strong stand against signing unfair trade deals with the EU. While some governments (such as India) have expressed a general desire for a trade deal with the EU, they strongly reject some of the elements that the EU wants to include. There is also strong domestic opposition to it by farmers’ groups, human rights and environmental campaigners, and other civil society groups within those countries. Some governments are persuaded that parts of their own economy will benefit from a deal, for example richer consumers will be able to access imported goods or services, or big local companies might benefit from new access to European markets. However, evidence shows that even if these benefits do materialise for the betteroff consumer or for the owners of local companies, the results do not trickle down to the very poor, and indeed such deals can jeopardise existing jobs and livelihoods and frustrate efforts to reduce poverty, improve jobs and workers’ rights, and protect the environment.
What about the world trade talks at the WTO? WTO trade negotiations have been pretty much stuck since 2005. In December 2013, Ministers agreed a reduced package that falls far short of the ambitions outlined at the launch of the 2001 Doha round of negotiations (still not concluded), and is unlikely to benefit developing countries. One of the big concerns is that an agreement to make cross-border trade more efficient (trade facilitation) will further undermine national industries and give yet more advantages to big companies who now have greatly increased rights, including to intervene in customs procedures. Furthermore, the rules meant to benefit Least Developed Countries are non-binding, making them nearmeaningless. One positive decision taken at last year’s Ministerial meeting is for countries to be able to maintain food reserves to help their populations deal with volatile food prices. This is currently an interim measure (for four years) and met with strong opposition from the EU and US, but developing countries may eventually secure a more long-term agreement.
Won’t these deals make goods cheaper for consumers here in the UK? In both Europe and developing countries, one of the benefits touted for these deals is cheaper goods for consumers. Undoubtedly, some goods will, on the face of it, be cheaper after these deals. However, this will come at a cost to farmers, workers and communities in developing countries, in the form of job losses, increased poverty, and increased environmental degradation. The deal between the EU and the US currently being negotiated is, according to its advocates, going to increase jobs in the EU. Similar assertions were made about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), between the US, Canada and Mexico. However, instead of creating 170,000 jobs per year as estimated, ten years after NAFTA was signed it had resulted in an estimated net loss of 1 million jobs in the US.6
Of course we want European businesses to benefit from the trade and investment deals, what’s the problem with big business having influence over the negotiations? No-one is saying that businesses should not be allowed to have a say on European trade policy, the problem is how much power big European companies have over the deals, compared to other interest groups in both Europe and the developing countries with whom we are negotiating. Lobbying in Europe is estimated to be a 1 billion Euro industry with between 15,000 and 30,000 lobbyists in Brussels: at least two thirds represent corporate interests.7 Lobbyists are not subject to a mandatory register and it can be extremely difficult to find out what lobby meetings have been held, with whom and on what issues. The ‘revolving door’ phenomenon is also common where industry lobbyists take jobs with the Commission and vice versa, increasing the likelihood of conflicts of interest. In contrast, the concerns of civil society groups in developing countries and Europe, including development, human rights and environmental campaigners, farmers groups, trade unions, and even small businesses in the global south, are rarely addressed.
3
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2013/march/tradoc_150801.pdf
4
Lauge Paulsen, The Importance of BITs for Foreign Direct Investment and Political Risk Insurance: Revisiting the Evidence, 2010, http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=lauge_poulsen
7
www.twnside.org.sg/title2/wto.info/2012/twninfo121001.htm
6
Public Citizen, NAFTA at 20, 2014, p.2, www.citizen.org/documents/NAFTA-at-20.pdf
7
Corporate Europe Observatory, Lobby Planet: Brussels, The EU Quarter, 2011, p.7.
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TAKE BACK THE POWER: MAKE TRADE WORK FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET
Candidates often attend local hustings during the election campaign period. Look out for announcements in your local media. A hustings provides constituents the opportunity to ask their MEP candidate questions to gain an idea of where they stand on different issues. If you attend a local hustings you can use the examples below to formulate your own questions. Don’t forget to mention the Take Back The Power campaign and ask the MEP candidate to sign the pledge.
You could also consider organising your own local hustings. Email mep.lobby@tjm.org.uk to see if there are other campaigners in your area who are interested in getting involved.
EXAMPLE QUESTIONS EU trade and investment policy currently gives excessive power to big business. For example, the European Commission promotes trade rules that allow foreign investors to sue Governments for implementing legitimate policies and laws in secret tribunals (investor-state dispute settlement). What is your view on this and what will you do to curb excessive corporate power?
Trade and investment negotiation mandates and texts are not public and only viewed by a small group of MEPs (those who are on the Parliament’s trade committee). Therefore, it is impossible to understand the true impacts of a proposed deal before it has been signed. As an MEP, how will you ensure transparency and accountability in EU trade and investment deals?
8
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The Alternative Trade Mandate is an example of a set of alternative proposals for EU trade and investment policy. What are your views on the EU’s current approach to trade and investment?
How can we ensure that EU trade and investment deals prioritise human rights, environmental rights and labour standards? In particular, do you think that the EU should take action on the imbalance between company lobbyists and the ability of ordinary people to be represented?
The EU’s current approach to trade and investment undermines the EUs development objectives and its Policy Coherence for Development.8 What will you do as an MEP to address this problem?
For more information on the EU’s Policy Coherence for Development see http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/what/development-policies/policy-coherence/index_en.htm
GLOSSARY
Bilateral Investment Agreements (BITs) BITs are agreements between two countries or regions, which set out the rules which apply when an individual or company from one country makes a private investment in another country.
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the ‘executive arm’ of the European Union. It is responsible for developing policy, proposing legislation, implementing decisions, and the general day-to-day running of the European Union. The EC is divided up into ‘directorate generals’ (DGs), a bit like government departments, each of which is headed up by a Commissioner, who is the EU equivalents of a Secretary of State. Each Commissioner comes from a different European member state, and has a group of officials who assist them in the monitoring and development of policy in their area. The whole European Commission is replaced every 45 years. The term of this Commission is nearly up and a new Commission is due to be appointed after the elections.
Trade Commissioner The Trade Commissioner is the head of the Directorate General for Trade. At the moment the post is held by Karel De Gucht. Having served a full term, De Gucht is likely to be replaced after the elections.
EU Member State Member states are the countries which are members of the European Union. The UK is one of them and in total there are 28.
Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) This is a mechanism included in trade deals and bilateral investment treaties which allows companies to sue governments in private international tribunals when government regulation is deemed to have affected their investment.
WTO The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the international organisation which supervises international trade. Its main responsibility is to negotiate and implement new trade agreements at the international level, and to police adherence to existing rules by countries who are members.
Free Trade Agreement The term ‘Free Trade Agreement’ (FTA) is used to represent both bilateral and regional trade deals. FTAs can be negotiated between two or more countries, and can cover a range of trade issues (for example, tariffs on goods) and trade-related issues (for example, investment, services, intellectual property and competition).
European Parliament and Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) The European Parliament is made up of directly elected representatives from the European member states, known as Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Each UK MEP represents a region and each region has several MEPs. In elections, constituents vote for the party they want, not for individuals, and the seats for each region are divided up between the parties depending on how many votes they get. Seats are awarded by the respective parties to the individual candidates named on the regional party list. A candidate at the top of the list for a party is far more likely to become an MEP than a candidate put at number 10 on the list. The Parliament shares decision-making power with the European Council, which is made up of Ministers from each EU member state.
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TAKE BACK THE POWER: MAKE TRADE WORK FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET
If elected as an MEP in May 2014, I will stand up for trade and investment rules that serve people and the environment, and promote development objectives. I pledge to take action to bring about a full-scale re-think of the EU’s trade and investment policy.
In order to help bring about a re-think, I will: • Write to the Trade Commissioner and President of the European Commission to urge them to commit to: – Remove Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) from future investment treaties and trade deals. – Ensure that the international framework of social, labour, human and women’s rights and standards takes precedence over corporate and other private interests in future trade and investment deals. – Ensure genuine participation and engagement of civil society organisations in future trade and investment negotiations. – Consider and engage with alternatives to the EU’s current approach to trade and investment, such as those set out in the Alternative Trade Mandate. • Seek to become actively involved in discussion and initiatives of the political grouping to which my party/I belong to bring the above issues before the European Parliament.
To download a printable version of the pledge please visit www.tjm.org.uk
The European Parliamentary elections will be held on Thursday 22 May 2014 Have you: Read the lobby guide to provide you with an overview of the campaign and an insight into the issues? Checked the TJM website to see which of you MEPs candidates have signed the pledge? Sent your MEP the pledge via our online action, email or letter? Considered attending a hustings and asking your MEP candidate about trade justice? Or considered organising a hustings? Considered arranging a meeting with your MEP candidate(s). Contacted mep.lobby@tjm.org.uk if you want more information about the campaign or if you want to let us know how you get on?
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A list of the Trade Justice Movement’s members www.tjm.org.uk/about-us/current-members.html Trade Justice Movement’s information on Bilateral Investment Treaties www.tjm.org.uk/trade-issues/related-campaign-issues/bilateralinvestment-treaties.html Alternative Trade Mandate www.alternativetrademandate.org A Transatlantic Corporate Bill of Rights, by Seattle To Brussels Network, Corporate Europe Observatory and Transnational Institute http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/attachments/transatlanticcorporate-bill-of-rights-oct13.pdf Unraveling the Spin: a Guide to Corporate Rights in the EU-US trade deal, by Corporate Europe Observatory http://corporateeurope.org/trade/2013/07/unravelling-spin-guidecorporate-rights-eu-us-trade-deal European Commission’s information about trade http://ec.europa.eu/trade/ More about worldwide opposition to unfair trade deals www.bilaterals.org www.s2bnetwork.org www.ourworldisnotforsale.org
TRADE JUSTICE MOVEMENT For more information on the campaign, please contact: mep.lobby@tjm.org.uk Please send signed pledges to: Trade Justice Movement c/o The Fairtrade Foundation 3rd Floor, Ibex House 42-47 Minories London EC3N 1DY
www.tjm.org.uk
MAKE TRADE WORK FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET
c/o The Fairtrade Foundation 3rd Floor, Ibex House 42–47 Minories London EC3N 1DY www.tjm.org.uk