German
media say secret documents reveal the US has pressured the EU to approve a
transatlantic free trade deal. The reports say Washington may block easier car
exports if the EU doesn't open up its agricultural market.
German
media say 240 pages of text from secret transatlantic free trade talks obtained
by Greenpeace show that the US is pressuring the EU.
Washington
was blocking European car exports into the US to force the
508-million-population EU to buy more environmentally risky US farm produce,
claimed the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" (SZ) newspaper and two German
public television channels.
Greenpeace
said it would publish the material later on Monday, contrary to strict secrecy
maintained by US and EU negotiating teams during three years of talks on the
proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
The TTIP is
unpopular in Germany. On the eve of US President Barack Obama's visit to a
major Hanover trade exhibition last week, tens of thousands of opponents
demonstrated.
Documents
seem authentic
The German
news agency DPA said persons close to the talks had confirmed the authenticity
of the documents. Accessibility so far has been strictly limited.
By blocking
an easing of car exports into the US, Washington wanted the EU to replace its
precautionary consumer safety principle with the liberal US approach of
permitting foodstuffs until risks are proven, said the media outlets, including
the ARD network's channels NDR and WDR.
The EU's
principle that goods must first be certified as safe has often been cited by
the EU to constrain imports of American gene-manipulated and hormone-treated
produce.
TTIP opponents rallied as Obama headed to Hannover |
Public
arbitration panels blocked
The German
outlets said the documents disclosed by Greenpeace also showed that the US was
blocking an EU demand that arbitration panels to handle corporate lawsuits be
public not private as sought by Washington.
Greenpeace
trade expert Jürgen Knirsch said what had so far trickled out of the talks had
"sounded like a nightmare."
"Now
we know that this could very much become reality," said Knirsch.
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."
Merkel and Obama called for 'urgency' on TTIP |
Urgency
sought by Obama, Merkel
Visiting
Hanover last week, US President Barack Obama together with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel called for urgency at the TTIP negotiations.
Obama said he
hoped it would the talks would be concluded in 2017, beyond the next US
presidential election due in November this year.
Last Friday
in New York, the lead US and EU negotiators - US Trade Representative Daniel
Mullaney and the European Commission's Ignacio Garcia Bercera - said they hoped
to reach a deal before Obama leaves office in January.
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