TTIP – Don’t let corporations sue the government

Do you want to live in a world in which multinational corporations can sue the UK government for raising the minimum wage? [1] Or how about a world where big tobacco companies can sue the UK for billions of pounds for introducing a plain cigarette packaging law? [2]

Scarily, this could happen if TTIP – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – is passed. It’s basically a Christmas wish-list for big businesses – one with no benefit to ordinary people. Right now, the negotiations are going on behind closed doors. But the devastating consequences will affect us all. We have an opportunity – but only for the next 48 hours – to stop one of the worst parts of the deal.

Thanks to massive people-powered campaigns across Europe, the TTIP negotiating team opened a consultation on the Investor-To-State Dispute Settlement – ISDS. It’s a complex name that covers up a nasty rule that’ll let corporations sue our government for putting their duty to ordinary people before businesses’ profits. [3]

Together, 38 Degrees members are doing all we can to get ISDS dropped from the deal – but the consultation closes in just 48 hours time. This is the first time ordinary people like us will have a chance to have a say on any part of TTIP.  So we’re making sure the negotiating team gets the message loud and clear – we don’t want big businesses to dictate laws to our government.

There are only two days left. And the negotiating team has only really heard from shady lobbyists so far. So if you want to tell them why the deal is terrible for ordinary people, you can send a message to the consultation here.
When thousands of us feed into consultations, we’re too powerful to ignore. Thousands of us participating in consultations like this creates waves. And the thousands of 38 Degrees members submitting to the EU consultation today definitely can’t be ignored. 38 Degrees members crashed the EU’s website with the weight of their opinion.

The TTIP team is vulnerable right now. Just this month the US embassy in Berlin offered grants of $20,000 for campaigns in support of TTIP! So this is a perfect time to show how much opposition there is. And we’ll be in good company – we’ll be joining hundreds of thousands of voices across Europe who have already spoken out against the deal.