TTIP serves the major corporations
Monday, May 26, 2014 at 08:10PM DW: The planned free trade agreement between the US and the EU (TTIP) has been debated for months now. How useful will it be from your point of view?
Christoph Scherrer: It seems to me that it mainly serves the interests of the corporations. Neither consumers' nor workers' organizations were consulted ahead of the negotiations. The catalogue of demands is fundamentally an image of the demands of the major industry associations.
One of the points of contention is the corporations' new right to take legal action. Some fear that parliamentary decisions could be suspended if companies feel unfairly treated by new legislation. How justified is this fear?
The idea that companies can sue states is completely new for any trade agreement between states that have well-developed legal systems.
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