The Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal, which is currently being negotiated, seeks to deregulate and streamline trade between the United States and the European Union, among other states.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal was recently agreed between the United States and representatives of Japan, Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific Rim nations, while its ratification is still pending.
“Individual governments are sidestepping the universal norms of international economic cooperation and trade by using non-transparent and closed unions. The participants of these closed clubs, as the American side calls outright, are attempting to rewrite the rules of global economy in their own interests,” Zakharova said at a briefing.
She added that “universal rules of international trade need to be developed in the WTO with the participation of all interested parties.”
The free trade agreements, negotiated in unusual secrecy, have proved controversial, as hundreds of thousands of opponents say the pacts would undermine standards and regulations on environmental protection, health and safety, and workers’ rights, among other points.
Last week, the WikiLeaks website claimed that provisions relating to drug companies in the the TPP would "cost lives."
