WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – TTIP agreement critics say that the ISDS system will enable foreign investors to sue host governments for damages.
"Environmental, consumer, labor and family farm groups in the United States very much oppose the investor-state dispute settlement provisions proposed for TTIP," Citizens Trade Campaign (CTC) Executive Director Arthur Stamoulis said on Tuesday.
CTC focuses on ensuring that free trade agreements support economic justice, human rights and a sound environment, according to the group’s website.
Stamoulis told Sputnik that US civil society groups are also skeptical of TTIP chapters related to regulatory coherence, public procurement and financial services.
Trade agreements could be a means of building sustainable economies, Stamoulis argued, but under the US Trade Representative Office and Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission they have become "little more than a corporate power grab."
US "Fast Track" legislation, which is most often discussed in terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, could have serious ramifications for TTIP, Stamoulis said.
The controversial TTIP agreement seeks to establish a transatlantic free trade zone for a consumer market estimated to contain 820 million people. This week, more than 2.1 million Europeans signed an online petition opposing the TTIP.
US fast track authority would allow the country’s president to conclude negotiations on pending Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic free-trade agreements, without giving the US Congress the ability to ratify them.
