Small Businesses in Europe Fear Getting Trampled by TTIP

[marmar]

Small Businesses in Europe Fear Getting Trampled by TTIP
by Don Quijones • January 20, 2016


[font color="blue"]The powers behind it are multinationals.[/font]

By Don Quijones, Spain & Mexico, editor at WOLF STREET.


At this moment, 3,382,680 people have signed a European Citizens’ Initiative calling for an immediate end to the negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). “Stop these sinister trade deals,” is the site’s motto. It’s by far and away the highest number of signatures ever achieved by such a petition. Mass demonstrations, meetings, and rallies have been held in towns and cities across the continent as well as coordinated international days of action against TTIP.

While protests from anti-globalization groups and labor unions have hogged what little limelight there has been, the depth of European skepticism goes much deeper. Thousands of local councils and municipalities have preemptively declared themselves to be TTIP-free zones, including Spain’s second biggest city, Barcelona.

Now, despite the European Commission’s increasingly desperate efforts to paint TTIP as SME-friendly, growing ranks of small businesses are beginning to question the wisdom of signing the so-called free trade agreement, which has little to do with actual “trade,” and everything to do with expanding the rights and powers of large corporations.

A new Business Against TTIP platform has just been launched in Britain, fronted by UK Entrepreneur of the Year Titus Sharpe. “The small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector is critical to the UK economy,” Sharpe writes in the UK Independent. “We account for more than 99% of the private sector and we provide jobs for more than 15 million people. Our gross value add to the British economy is £339 billion.” ................(more)

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/01/20/small-businesses-in-europe-fear-getting-trampled-by-ttip/