Big Phil stands his ground on TTIP

AGRICULTURE Commissioner Phil Hogan won plaudits last week for standing up to the Americans on the EU-US trade deal, known as the transatlantic trade and investment partnership, or TTIP.

His office sent a note to all 28 EU ambassadors in Brussels to counter what one official described as American “bullying” over agricultural tariffs.

The US wants greater access to the EU market, particularly for poultry, fruit and vegetable exports, but officials say it has refused to offer the European side enough in return.

US ambassador Anthony Gardner contacted EU embassies last week to lament a lack of progress on the deal, a move one senior Commission official called “a diplomatic and tactical mistake”.

The spat has set progress back ahead of a 14th round of talks in July. “It can’t be a costfree round for the US,” said one senior EU official close to the talks. Negotiators, particularly on the US side, want to close a deal before US presidential elections in November.

But those close to the talks accept that the timeline is impossible. “Both sides feel that neither is moving,” says Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness, who doesn’t see a deal on TTIP for years to come.

“It’s a political drum they’re beating more angrily on both sides of the Atlantic,” she added. “We don’t have a deal, we have discussions,” she said.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has called on the Irish government to block a new EU-Canada trade deal.

The deal was finalised last year but needs the seal of approval of parliaments in the EU’s 28 Member States.

Carthy says the deal will lead to a glut of genetically modified products on EU markets, threatening Irish farmers’ livelihoods. He says opening public procurement markets to Canadian firms will threaten EU jobs, and questions the legality of a new system of investor courts to be brought in under the deal. He says the Canada agreement is “TTIP in disguise” and should be spiked before it becomes law.