Dundee to host launch of national tour to “Stop the transatlantic trade deals”

Date: 26 October 2015

What: The launch of a seven date tour across the UK warning of the dangers of transatlantic trade deals being pushed by Brussels, featuring trade experts from Canada, Uganda and the UK.
When: Sunday 1 November, 3pm
Where: Dundee, Lecture Theatre 1, Dalhousie Building, Dundee DD1 5EN
Controversy has been growing in the UK over free trade deals that the European Commission is pushing between the EU and the USA (the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP) and the EU and Canada (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA).

Critics argue that these trade deals would:

Endanger public ownership of the NHS and other vital public services.
Provide corporations with numerous opportunities to sue governments in secret courts for introducing laws that would harm their profits. This is known as the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism, or ISDS>
Create a ‘race to the bottom’ whereby laws and safety standards on banking, the environment, food and other consumer goods were ‘harmonized’ across to the Atlantic to whoever had the weakest regulations.

Speakers on the tour include:

Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, trade expert and the recipient of twelve honorary doctorates as well as many awards, including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”)
Yash Tandon, a Ugandan policymaker, political activist, professor, author and public intellectual who has lectured extensively in the areas of International Relations and Political economy.
Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now and a prominent critic of the current rash of free trade deals.

In September it was revealed that UK negotiators had failed to protect any regionally produced products such as Arbroath Smokies under CETA, whereas other countries in Europe had provided protection for whole lists of such products.

All 56 of the Scottish National Party MPs have signed a parliamentary motion condemning the trade deals, and earlier in October the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, spoke out against TTIP at a rally in London. On the same day, 250,000 people in Berlin took to the streets to protest against TTIP and CETA. In October a petition of three million signatures colleacted from across Europe opposing the trade deals was submitted to the European Commission.

Maude Barlow, the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and speaker on the tour said:
“In Canada we’ve already had a lot of experience of corporations being able to sue our government for introducing laws that might protect the environment or workers’ rights, but that don’t create as much profit for the corporations. This was because of a trade deal that we signed a long time ago with the USA. It’s been a disaster for democracy and has cost the taxpayer billions. I’m in the UK to warn people what has happened in Canada, and to show that it’s not too late to prevent this disaster from happening.

People in the UK need to be concerned about this new generation of trade deals as they impact local governments for the first time; they set really dangerous limits on the rights of governments to set regulations and standards and they endanger public services.”

Nick Dearden, the director of Global Justice Now and one of the speakers on the tour said:

“CETA is TTIP’s little brother – a deal quietly agreed behind closed doors which will allow Canadian and American big business the ability to sue Britain in secret courts for making decisions that damage their profits. Halting destructive mines, renationalising railways, regulating banks, cleaning up our environment, using plain packing for cigarettes – all examples of the kinds of decisions which could mean our government shelling out millions of pounds to big business. There is no question about it: the British government will be sued by foreign corporations if this deal is ratified. Everything that we know about this secretive trade deals shows that it is very little about trade and very much about enshrining a massive corporate power grab.”

Over the course of eight days, the speaker tour will also visit Manchester, Leeds, London, Oxford, Cardiff and Dublin.
There are some opportunities to interview the speakers while in Dundee or prior to the talk. Get in touch for further information.

Print quality photos of various TTIP protests and demonstrations can be found on the Global Justice Now flickr page.

*** ENDS ****
What is TTIP?
What is CETA?
Speaker biographies
Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. Maude is the recipient of twelve honorary doctorates as well as many awards, including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”). She served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly and was a leader in the campaign to have water recognized as a human right by the UN. She is also the author of dozens of reports, as well as 17 books, including her latest, Blue Future: Protecting Water for People and the Planet Forever. She has been active in the fight for fair trade deals in Canada and around the world for decades.
Yash Tandon is a Ugandan policymaker, political activist, professor, author and public intellectual. He has lectured extensively in the areas of International Relations and Political economy. He was deeply involved in the struggle against the dictatorship of Idi Amin in 1970’s Uganda and has spent time in exile. He is the author and editor of numerous books and articles and has served on the editorial boards of many journals.
Nick Dearden is the director of Global Justice Now, a democratic social justice organisation working as part of a global movement to challenge the powerful and create a more just and equal world. Global Justice Now mobilises people in the UK for change, and act in solidarity with those fighting injustice, particularly in the global south.