FFII

Hello world!

By FFII | January 13, 2015

Welcome to our new WordPress design. Thanks for the support for setting it up to Andre Rebentisch and Alexander Klosch!

FFII

ISDS out?

By FFII | October 2, 2014

OpenDemocracy reports about the back and forth confusion during Commissioner hearings recently:

At 16:01 they [Tagesspiegel] publish an article on their website: Juncker will drop ISDS from TTIP, this is the policy of the incoming Commission. It becomes more an more likely that the controversial enforcement of TTIP and CETA with ISDS instruments would be resolved. This would enable the public to focus more on the substance of the envisaged agreements.

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US PEC on Cross-Border Data Flows in TTIP and other FTA

By FFII | July 21, 2014

The US President Export Council discusses its proposed data flow provisions (June 19, 2014) as a means to counter the rush to privacy protection and denounces privacy measures of foreign governments as a trade barrier and digital protectionism. No further arguments are provided to back up these claims and allegations. CHAIRMAN McNERNEY:
.. Ginni, you warmed up earlier today over breakfast, on cross-border data flows, but why don’t you give us a summary of the second letter on cross – data border flows? MS. ROMETTY [IBM]: Okay.

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Encryption on the TTIP agenda

By FFII | July 15, 2014

The European Commission General directorate for trade confirms that electronic encryption is among the discussed topics:

On ICT, the two sides have so far exchanged analysis on some specific topics, such as e-health, encryption, e-accessibility, enforcement and e-labelling.

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German Parliament questions on TTIP

By FFII | March 26, 2014

Thanks to the tool Offenesparlament.de you can find what questions are asked by Members of the German Bundestag (MdB) concerning the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership to the German government. For instance the Government stipulates that sectoral exclusions are impossible because of WTO principles (Dr. Maria Flachsbarth, Parl. Staatssekretärin beim Bundesminister für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft):
Dennoch ist es aus der Sicht meines Hauses aufgrund von WTO-Bestimmungen ausgeschlossen, einen gesamten Bereich wie zum Beispiel den Agrarsektor aus diesem Verfahren bzw. aus den Verhandlungen zum TTIP auszunehmen. It needs further analysis why and how bilateral negotiations are governed by WTO trade principles.

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A word on chlorinated chicken in TTIP

By FFII | February 28, 2014

These days the European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht claims chlorinated chicken was not a valid concern of the TTIP negotiations. EU investment agreements will explicitly state that legitimate government public policy decisions – on issues such as the balance between public and private provision of healthcare or “the European ban on chicken carcasses washed with chlorine” – cannot be over-ridden. In the US it is common to use chlorine for desinfection of slaughtered poultry. The EU denies these US imports on food safety grounds under 191 TFEU (precautionary principle). The chlorinated chicken became a poster child of consumer campaign groups against the TTIP and raised suspicion of the European public against the TTIP.

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Commission says no IP harmonisation with TTIP

By FFII | February 26, 2014

The Commission announced:
Given the efficiency of their respective systems, the intention is not to strive towards harmonisation, but to identify a number of specific issues where divergences will be addressed. What does “harmonisation” mean within the European Union institutions? Addressing legal and regulatory divergences between member states. Or as Wikipedia puts it:
In relation to the European Union, harmonisation of law (or “harmonisation”) is the process of creating common standards across the internal market. Though each EU member State has the primary responsibility for the regulation of most matters within their jurisdiction and consequently each has its own laws.