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US trade deal ‘could flood Britain with toxic cosmetics’
Campaigners fear that EU rules banning dangerous chemicals will be relaxed to allow American companies into UK market.
A fast track to weaker food standards
Will the EU concede to the demands of US negotiators on food standards? The Commission can in fact circumvent the mandate by using other methods that make it much easier to weaken standards.
EU: mini US deal will only tackle regulatory barriers
The European Union is prepared to lower barriers for US agricultural goods such as GMOs as part of a mini trade deal, but don’t expect bigger concessions like cutting tariffs or changing EU laws, an EU official said.
There’s nothing “mini” about the US plan to unravel Europe’s precautionary principle
US trade negotiators, Agriculture Secretary, and American farm interests have all been crystal clear: the precautionary principle must go, and now is the time to finally axe it.
Health, environment and climate are not negotiable
More than 100 Civil society organisations demand a stop to trade talks that will further endanger EU rules on health and the environment and aggravate the climate crisis. A change of course is needed.
Member states ‘in the dark’ over Commission’s talks with the US
A group of EU member states are unhappy about the lack of information from the European Commission on the trade talks with the US and have expressed their “nervousness” about what could be in the deal.
CETA puts pressure on precautionary principle, glyphosate implicated
The changes joint committees are allowed to make to the CETA-text are in effect very far-reaching and at the same time binding, so they take up the role of legislator.
Commission publishes proposal for agreement on conformity assessment with United States
The European Commission published its proposal for an EU-US agreement on conformity assessment for industrial products, in line with its commitment to enhanced transparency in trade negotiations.
Civil society organizations call on Commission to ensure transparency in trade talks
European civil society organizations published an open letter to the Trade Commissioner-designate and the President of the European Commission regarding the lack of transparency in the ongoing EU-US trade talks.
Trading away protection
Emerging threats from the EU-US trade talks on confomity assessments and regulatory cooperation.
New report: Secret regulatory talks threaten public protections
Regulatory cooperation has provided a forum for multinational business interests to influence government regulators in secretive committees that largely exclude consumer, environmental and other civil society representatives.
EU-US FTA: EU negotiating mandates (Apr 2019)
As agreed by the European Council
CETA: Demande de transparence en matière de coopération réglementaire votée à l’unanimité
Le Parlement de Wallonie a adopté une proposition de résolution amendée relative à la transparence en matière de coopération réglementaire dans le traité de libre-échange entre l’Union européenne et le Canada, le fameux CETA.
Uprooted episode 60: The regulatory cooperation council
Sharon Treat exposes another backdoor to deregulation, the Regulatory Cooperation Council, that exists through NAFTA and is being used by corporate livestock lobbyists to undermine food safety and consumers right to know.
The post-TTIP transatlantic cooperation on trade: Stepping up conformity assessment
Conformity assessment cooperation does not imply cooperation on the content of regulatory disciplines, making it a less ambitious mechanism than as had been initially intended under the TTIP.
Agribusiness’s secretive plans to unravel food safety and worker protections
Little-known council linked to NAFTA subverts public safety to free trade.
EU-US FTA: EU draft negotiating mandates (Jan 2019)
As released by the European Commission
EU-Indonesia FTA: Good regulatory practices draft chapter (EU proposal, Sep 2018)
As released by the European Commission
Who is behind the push for a post-Brexit free trade deal with the US?
A nexus of libertarian thinktanks in both the UK and the US propose a bonfire of tariffs, quotas and anti-competitive rules.
As if the USMCA dairy concessions were not bad enough…
It is deeply concerning, though not surprising, that the proposed United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) has at least three chapters that formally entrench corporate influence on government decision-making.