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Welcome to the second TTIP update for Scottish activists.

This briefing is for the European and External Relations Committee debate.

The Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) is currently being negotiated between the US and EU. We believe that the risks from TTIP far outweigh the benefits. TTIP is not about reducing conventional barriers to trade, such as tariffs (which are already extremely low between the US and the EU) it is designed to take away barriers which are behind the customs border – such as differences in regulations, standards and certifications.

It is less than a year since the first #NoTTIP Times was published, and since then we have seen thousands join our campaign. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is getting a hammering as more and more people – on both sides of the Atlantic - become aware of what it is and what it means for us. Our message is to keep up and increase this pressure, raise awareness and create a movement that will defeat this attempt by corporate interests to co-opt our democracy in order to maximise their profits at our expense.

Welcome to the first monthly TTIP update for campaigners across Scotland, rounding up some of the latest news and information on the toxic trade deal. We hope to produce this roughly once a month.

The transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP), is an EU-US mega trade deal which, if passed will be the biggest trade deal in history.

But TTIP is more than just a trade deal.  It is an unprecedented transfer of power from democratically elected governments to trans-national corporations. TTIP is a threat to Scotland’s public services, progressive legislation and democracy itself.

Despite its vast oil wealth, over half of Nigerians lack access to electricity, and the country’s grid power usage per person is among the lowest in the world, meaning that many people rely on candles and kerosene, or expensive diesel generators. Lack of electricity hampers the provision of public services like healthcare and education, and makes it difficult or impossible for businesses to operate efficiently. As a result, Nigeria relies on imports for most of its manufactured goods. So it is clear that change is urgently needed to Nigeria’s energy system.

Act locally with Global Justice Now

Ninety-Nine expresses both our desire for a world that works for all of us, but also our ambition for creating a genuinely big movement capable of bringing this world about.

You can find the read and download the first issue of Ninety-Nine below. We hope it will inform, inspire and provoke. You are the 99%. 

In January ‘the great and the good’ meet in Davos, Switzerland to discuss how the world is changing, and how corporate executives and senior politicians should respond to these changes. At this meeting, these important people spend a great deal of time convincing each other that they are creating a more prosperous world than we’ve ever seen in history. Without their business practices, their overseas investments, their entrepreneurial talent and their philanthropy, you would easily imagine that we would all be much worse off.