US healthcare companies circling to take over the NHS are now ‘on notice’, says the TUC.
Speaking after meeting EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht about the forthcoming Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) in Davos on Thursday, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: ‘US healthcare companies should know that they have been put on notice.
‘They should not expect the forthcoming EU-US trade deal to protect them from a future British government restoring NHS services currently run by private firms to the public sector.
‘The EU Trade Commissioner has assured me that the consultation exercise on foreign investors’
rights will now, as a result of union pressure, include the option of dumping the deeply undemocratic Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism.
‘I left him in no doubt that unions and their campaign partners will be demanding its removal from the TTIP.
‘We must ensure that future governments are not bound to pay unlimited compensation to companies seeking to make a killing from the implementation of the Health and Social Care Act.
‘Democratically elected governments must be free to do what voters decide, and not be frightened off by the prospect of secretive litigation.’
The European Commission decided on 21 January that it would be postponing negotiations on an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism in the context of the EU-US trade and investment partnership (TTIP), with a view to launching a public consultation.
‘I know some people in Europe have genuine concerns about this part of the EU-US deal,’ said EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht, adding that the decision reflected the EU executive’s determination to secure the right balance between protecting European investment interests and upholding governments’ right to regulate in the public interest.
The TTIP negotiations launched last June included the so-called ‘investor-state’ dispute clauses empowering EU and US-based corporations to lodge private legal cases directly against governments.
The EC’s proposal initially would have enabled US companies investing in Europe to by-pass European courts and directly challenge governments at international tribunals whenever they find that laws in the area of public health, environmental or social protection infringe their right to do business. EU companies investing abroad would have had the same rights in the United States.
‘Governments must always be free to regulate so they can protect people and the environment. But they must also find the right balance and treat investors fairly, so they can attract investment,’ De Gucht said.
‘International investment agreements like TTIP should ensure they do both. But some existing arrangements have caused problems in practice, allowing companies to exploit loopholes where the legal text has been vague,’ he added.
Across the political spectrum, MEPs and ‘stakeholders’ alike have welcomed the EU executive’s move, saying it was a step in the right direction.
‘The investor-state dispute settlement mechanism is a massive Trojan horse, which could be used by multinational corporations to whittle away EU standards and regulations across a range of policies, from the environment to food safety to social protection,’ said MEP Yannick Jadot, the Greens’ trade spokesperson in the European Parliament.
