UN’s development goals “fatally undermined” by EU-USA trade deal according to new report

UN’s development goals “fatally undermined” by EU-USA trade deal according to new report

Date: 28 September 2015

While politicians, campaigners and development agencies meet in New York for the launch of a broad series of goals aimed at eradicating poverty by 2030, a new report from the Trade Justice Movement argues that any potential progress made by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would be fatally undermined by the impacts of a proposed free trade deal between the EU and USA – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

The report, TTIPing Away the Ladder, published by the Trade Justice Movement, shows that:

  • TTIP contradicts the central SDG aim of levelling the playing field for developing countries. The SDGs recognise that this can only be achieved if developing countries have an equal decision making role in global economic and financial institutions. They also specifically recognise that developing countries need a stronger voice in trade negotiations. TTIP, the biggest trade deal we’ve ever seen, explicitly intended by the EU and US as a global blueprint for trade, is the precise opposite of this. Developing countries will not have a seat at the TTIP table, where the future of trade policy is being decided.
  • TTIP threatens to close down the policy space available to developing countries for achieving the SDGs. Experience of the 20th century tells us that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ model of development. TTIP favours a narrow, market-led approach to everything from intellectual property rights (patents) to services and industrial development. If the deal is agreed, the pressure on developing countries to conform to this model will be enormous. The EU and US are huge trading partners and sources of investment for developing countries and developing countries are engaged in a number of Free Trade Agreements or negotiations with the EU and US. This will mean increasing pressure for them to conform to rules agreed in TTIP. A consolidated position between the EU and US will also make it much harder for them to pursue their priorities at a multilateral level.   
  • TTIP threatens to undermine three key SDGs. The first is for developing countries to improve their ability to trade: DFID’s own study suggests significant export losses for countries like Bangladesh, Niger and Ghana. The second is the impact on climate targets: not only will TTIP lead to higher emissions overall, it also blocks a number of policies needed for achieving the targets. Finally, it threatens to undermine health goals by strengthening the market dominance of pharmaceuticals companies, making it more likely that medicines for diseases such as TB and HIV will either be unavailable or unaffordable.

Ruth Bergan, one of the report’s authors and coordinator of the Trade Justice Movement said:

“This report shows that TTIP poses a real threat to the SDGs. It could directly undermine goals on things like health and climate change. More importantly, it could act as a huge barrier to the kind of structural changes that are needed to achieve lasting poverty reduction.

“The EU and US are committed to making TTIP the blueprint for global trade. Given that they are the world’s most powerful trading blocs, this would set in stone an approach that favours privatisation and liberalization – policies that have already failed many developing countries. Unless the EU and US halt negotiations on TTIP and prioritise building a fair multilateral system, their commitments to the SDGs are no more than hot air.”

Polly Jones, the head of campaigns and policy at Global Justice Now, and Chair of the Trade Justice Movement:

“If TTIP were to go ahead and then be rolled out in countries across the world as the EU and USA intend, it would constitute the biggest neoliberal assault on the global south since the 1980s when the imposition of extreme free trade policies had a devastating impact in exacerbating poverty and inequality and undermining vital public infrastructure. If we’re serious about achieving the important aims laid about by the SDGs, we need to stop these toxic negotiations happening in the EU, the USA or anywhere else in the world.”

 Almost 3 million people across Europe have signed a petition calling on the Commission to scrap TTIP.