Environmental Audit Committee publishes its report on the environmental risks of the Transatlantic Trade & Investment partnership (TTIP)
- Report: Environmental risks of the Transatlantic Trade & Investment partnership
- Report: Environmental risks of the Transatlantic Trade & Investment partnership (PDF)
- Inquiry: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
- Environmental Audit Committee
Background
A TTIP agreement, currently being negotiated by the european union and the US, could weaken European and UK environmental and public health regulations if laxer US regulations are ‘mutually accepted’ in the deal, the Environmental Audit Committee warns today. TTIP could also risks producing a chill effect on future environmental regulations, particularly if its proposed investment dispute settlement system — Investor-State Dispute Settlement or ‘ISDS’ — presents US companies with an opportunity to sue European states for introducing new regulations which make it more difficult for them to sell to us.
The extent of these risks is unclear at the moment, partly because the negotiations have some way still to go, and because a European Commission ‘Sustainability Impact Assessment’ has yet to be produced.