Transatlantic Trade

• VIDEO DOCUMENTATION OF THE EVENT
• BIOGRAPHIES OF THE CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

PRESENTATION

EU and US are in the starting blocks to negotiate a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). On 14 June, the Council will give the negotiating mandate to the Commission. Talks will be inaugurated some days after at the EU/US Summit. The TTIP is highly ambitious, and highly problematic, for Greens as well as for the entire environmental community in Europe and the USA.  The conference of the Greens asks: what is good, what is bad, what is ugly in the TTIP project? TTIP will include a strong focus on regulatory cooperation. But the regulatory cultures and social and environmental standards on both sides of the Atlantic are very different. Think of the conflicts over GMOs and Hormone Beef. TTIP is controversial from an industrial policy point of view. The two blocs are not complementary, but in fierce competition for global markets and the setting of global industrial standards. Remember the quarrel about REACH, or the different approaches to Intellectual Property as exemplified in the ACTA case. Transatlantic cooperation could, however, pave the way for higher global ecological standards and for a faster conversion towards a sustainable green economy. Both powers need to find new avenues to create social wealth. The conference aims at expressing the Greens concerns about the TTIP, at analysing its problems among progressive forces on both sides of the Atlantic, and at discussing the ingredients of an alternative agenda.

PROGRAMME

9:15 Welcome and Introduction by Bas Eickhout 9:30 - 11:00
Panel I: TTIP - What are we running up against? Mapping the political and economic stakes Chair: Reinhard Bütikofer Introduction Notes on the political context (each 10 min max) by

• Jennifer Hillman (German Marshall Fund, USA)
• Thomas Klau (European Council on Foreign Relations, Paris Office)

Comment (5 min max) by

• Lori Wallach (Public Citizen, USA)

Introduction Notes on the economic context (each 10 min max) by

• Thea Lee (AFL/CIO, USA) 
• Guillaume Duval (Alternatives Economiques, Paris, tbc)

Comment (5 min max.) by

• Robert Stumberg (Georgetown University, USA)  

11:00 - 12:30
Panel II: TTIP - What should we be running for? Mapping the global needs for a transatlantic leadership Chair: Yannick Jadot Introduction Notes on the social context (each 10 min max) by

• Florian Moritz (DGB Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, Berlin)
• Lori Wallach (Public Citizen, USA)

Comments (each 5 min max.) by

• Thea Lee (AFL/CIO, USA) 
• Guillaume Duval (Alternatives Economiques, Paris, tbc)

Introduction Notes on the environmental context (each 10 min max) by

• Robert Stumberg (Georgetown University, USA)  
• Christiane Gerstetter (Ecologic, Berlin/Washington DC)

Comments (each 5 min max.) by

• Jennifer Hillman (German Marshall Fund, USA)   
• Thomas Klau (European Council on Foreign Relations, Paris Office)

 Concluding Remarks by Bas Eickhout