Transatlantic Trade and Investment partnership Agreement

(TTIP)Overview of proposed Food safety,

Animal and Plant Health regulations

Long way to TTIP

1990-s – Negotiations on Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA)

2007 – Transatlantic Economic Council

2011- The United States- European Union High level Working Group on Jobs and Growth (HLWG)

June 17, 2013 – Official launch of the first round of TTIP negotiations

Primary goals

US

Increase sales of different types of

agricultural products: soy and corn

EU

Increase exports of “higher value food

products”

Main points of disagreement

Growth Hormones

Decontamination treatment

Investor-State Dispute

Settlement (ISDS)

tribunals

GIs

GMOs

No special regulations for GM

products/ absence of mandatory labeling

Regulation of GM products at every stage (pre-market

authorization – mandatory labeling –

post-monitoring)

US end of pipe regulations

EU preventive controls

Large-scale production

Decontamination

treatment + Treatment of

livestock produce with antibiotics

promoting growth

Only water can be used in processing

(“farm-to-fork” instead of

decontaminants)

Ban on hormones use

US end of pipe regulations

EU preventive controls

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) one concept, different application

EUHACCP + Traceability

USHACCP HIMP + limitation

of governmental control

How to harmonize diverse food safety standards?

To employ the same standards and methods in consumer safety regulation

orTo recognize each other’s safety regulations as

sufficient when importing goods

What progress has been achieved so far?

2014Statement of the U.S.

Agricultural Secretary: “the United States may be

unwilling to accept a TTIP agreement that allows

Europe’s current restrictions on GMOs to stand”

2015EU adopted new GMO law allowing Member States to

restrict or prohibit cultivation of already authorized at the

Union level GMOs

Evolution of the SPS Chapter proposalsLack of transparency

July 2014• Leaked Commission-proposed TTIP SPS Chapter

January 2015• First official release of the TTIP SPS Chapter

Protection of Geographical Indications

US no special protection for GIs (Aside from general protection under the Trademark Law or Certification marks regulation) // Many EU’s GIs not protected because treated as generic terms

EU strict model of protection // developed quality schemes and special registration systems

TTIP:

Latest version of EU Proposal suggests the list of 200 GIs that need to be protected at the moment of TTIP entry into force; Including 17 wine names for which TTIP must confirm exclusive protection on the US territory

“Leveling-up” WTO SPS provisions ?

WTO SPS Agreement: • Non-discrimination: MFN/NT• Harmonization• Science-based risk assessment • Equivalence

TTIP • Adopt “tolerances and maximum residue levels “ of pesticides, veterinary

drugs and food additives of the Codex Alimentarius *problem with ractopamine and

nanomaterials in food products• Animal welfare provisions – not binding

(based on “best endeavor”)

Introduction of indirect legal tools

• Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunals –enabling private foreign investors to sue governments for violation of TTIP SPS provisions

• Limitation on food import inspections - “elimination of redundant control measures”

• Regulatory cooperation share of information on “planned acts”; “ trade and investment impact assessments” purport to prevent possible future disputes

The Economist article Investor-State Dispute Settlement: The Arbitration Game

“IF YOU wanted to convince the public that international trade agreements are a way to let multinational companies get rich at the expense of ordinary people, this is what you would do: give foreign firms a special right to apply to a secretive tribunal of highly paid corporate lawyers for compensation whenever a government passes a law to, say, discourage smoking, protect the environment or prevent a nuclear catastrophe. Yet that is precisely what thousands of trade and investment treaties over the past half-century have done, through a process known as “investor-state dispute settlement”, or ISDS.”

TTIP Webinar Series prepared by Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)

• Trade rules for poultry and pork: safe for whom?

• TTIP and GMOs

• TTIP and Antimicrobial Resistance

• Trading Away Our Bees

• TTIP and Animal Welfare