The head of Germany’s consumer advisory bureaus Klaus Müller told the SZ that the texts confirmed “pretty much all of our fears in terms of what the US-Americans want to achieve on the food produce market through TTIP”.
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In Germany, some 100,000 people have protested against the so-called Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership but the government continues to push for it.
According to Greenpeace, the leaked documents reveal that the U.S.is urging the European Union negotiators to adopt more lax regulations insofar as product regulation in the 28-nation bloc is concerned. “Trade agreements will not change our laws on GMOs, or how to produce safe beef, or how to protect the environment”, she added. “In the end, what matters are not negotiation positions but the final agreement”, said Fabian Zuleeg, chief economist at the European Policy Centre.
While it would not comment on the “validity of alleged leaks”, a spokesman said “the interpretations being given to these texts appear to be misleading at best and flat-out wrong at worst”.
“We call on the negotiators to release the latest complete text to facilitate that discussion and we ask that the negotiations be stopped until these questions, and many more, have been answered”.
Greenpeace Netherlands, an environmental group, leaked 248 pages of classified documents involving TTIP, the far-reaching deal involving the USA and European Union.
To support its case it published confidential documents it said showed entrenched positions on the two sides.
According to Caucus 99 Percent, an European Union trade negotiator revealed that talks on cosmetics remain very hard and the scope of common objectives are fairly limited.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem wrote in a blog post that the bloc wouldn’t lower its level of protection regarding consumers, food safety or the environment.
“At this stage of negotiations, France says no to TTIP because we are not for free trade without rules”, Hollande said.
Mr Knirsch said the texts showed the United States wanted to replace Europe’s “precautionary principle” – which prevents potentially harmful products from coming to market when their effect is unknown or disputed – with a less stringent approach.
“In view of the United States’ state of mind today, that seems to be the most likely option”, trade secretary Matthias Fekl said on Europe 1 radio, when answering if he thought the negotiations were in danger of stopping.
TTIP talks have been held in virtually secrecy, and most information that is known in public has come out from unofficial leaks, which has already anxious many who see the deal has fundamentally un-democratic.
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The European Union’s trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, said in a blog post that, “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that there are areas where the E.U. and the USA have different views”.
