Within a year a new bilateral trading agreement between the EU and the US may be signed, which will have ominous consequences for all of us – The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Until now, most have never heard of this.

If so, it is hardly their fault, as it has been kept under wraps. In July 2013, chief EU negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercerro confirmed that the European Commission, conducting the negotiations, would block public access to all documents.

TTIP is an agreement designed to remove varying regulations on companies operating in American and Europe, supposedly stimulating the economy.

The regulations they are seeking to ‘harmonise’ include protections for the environment, workers’ rights, food safety, national health, the results of decades of social struggle.

This will also affect everyone at a local level.

It is plain why it would be in business’ interests to keep quiet about this.

Who likes the idea of beef raised on growth hormones or chicken washed in chlorine, or having to accept GM foods? All of these are currently banned in the EU, but allowed in the US.

Currently, in the EU one has to prove that new substances are not harmful – in the US it’s the other way round. Far more substances are banned in the EU than the US .

The treaty is a blatant race to the bottom. EU protections would be swept away.

Forget about taking public services back in-house, or the railways back into public ownership.

An essential part of the proposed agreement is the ISDS (Interstate Dispute Settlement mechanism), whereby multinational corporations could haul democratically elected governments before secret tribunals if they deem that the laws of that country prevent them from making as much profit as they could.

These tribunals already exist. Philip Morris is currently suing the Australian Government for billions of dollars because Australia passed a law stipulating plain cigarette packaging.

However, thanks to leaks, there is a big protest movement building across the US and Europe, notably in Germany. In the UK, charities, campaigning groups such as 38 Degrees, and the Green Party, the only party in Parliament clearly opposing TTIP, are working to break this media silence on TTIP and force it into the spotlight.

Phil Fletcher

Candidate for the Green Party for the High Barnet ward in the 2014 local elections