Letter to Vince Cable on CETA
Date: 9 September 2014
The Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade
9 September 2014
Dear Secretary of State,
Re: The inclusion of ISDS in Canada trade agreement
On 25 September the European Commission and the Canadian government are planning to initial the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) at an event in Ottawa, Canada. The text for this trade deal includes a proposal for an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clause.
ISDS is an increasingly controversial mechanism. Many voices, including government representatives of EU member states, have expressed concern about ISDS and argued that there is no need to include this mechanism in EU trade agreements with the US or Canada. We believe that ISDS gives excessive rights to foreign investors vis-à-vis the rest of society and discriminates against domestic investors. ISDS undermines the ‘right of governments to regulate’ and circumvents existing court systems. It relies on broad interpretations by for-profit arbitrators with significant conflict of interest issues. The reforms of the ISDS mechanism, proposed by the Commission, do not alleviate concerns about the fundamental flaws of the system, nor about its abuse by companies.
In January this year, as a result of public disquiet, the European Commission announced a public consultation on ISDS. Between March and July, about 150,000 people contributed to the consultation. The largest contributor to that figure was the UK. We are certain that an overwhelming majority expressed very clearly that they don’t want ISDS to be part of the trade agreement being negotiated with the US.
Even though the Commission has not yet finished analysing the contributions to their consultation, it has decided to move ahead with this highly controversial mechanism in the CETA agreement. We believe it would send an extremely worrying signal to European citizens if the opinion of those that took part in the consultation is ignored. It will only fuel the perception that the Commission is not listening to citizens.
Many people in Britain are particularly worried that the ISDS mechanism in CETA will have a detrimental impact on the NHS, public education and other public services, as well as our ability to regulate a host of industries from fracking to finance. This is because government protection and regulation of services would be open to challenge by transnational corporations under this mechanism. We have seen cases brought against government regulation of public services in other countries, and we fear not simply the compensation costs which these cases can lead to, but the chilling effect they have on democratic policy-making.
On 10 September the EU Trade Policy Committee will meet in Brussels to discuss and agree on the CETA text. This will be the last opportunity for member states to amend the text of the agreement.
Considering the strong and legitimate concerns about ISDS and considering that the Commission is still analysing the results of its public consultation, we are asking you at this meeting to insist that the Commission removes the ISDS mechanism from the CETA agreement, and if the Commission is not willing to do so, that the government withdraws support to CETA.
Yours faithfully,
- Andy Atkins, Executive Director, Friends of the Earth
- Ruth Bergan, Coordinator of the Trade Justice Movement
- Christine Blower, General Secretary, National Union of Teachers
- Nick Dearden, Director, World Development Movement
- Helen Drewery, General Secretary, Quaker Peace & Social Witness
- Billy Hayes, General Secretary, Communication Workers Union
- John Hilary, Executive Director, War on Want
- Sally Hunt, General Secretary, University and College Union
- Blanche Jones, Campaign Director, 38 Degrees
- Paul Kenny, General Secretary, GMB
- Len McCluskey, General Secretary, Unite
- Mags Vaughan, Chief Executive, Traidcraft
