Slow Food Europe Among Organizations Against Reopening Trade Negotiations with the US

Just days before the EU trade ministers decide whether to give the mandate to the European Commission to reopen formal negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement, Slow Food Europe joins a group of organizations to urge decision-makers to uphold the Paris Agreement and not mandate new trade negotiations with the United States.

EU and national decision-makers have stated that the EU will only negotiate trade deals with countries signatory to the Paris Agreement. Although President Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal from the historic agreement on climate mitigation in 2017, negotiations with the EU’s largest trade partner are again on the table.

The Commission has already drafted two mandates on industrial tariffs and conformity assessment. Various groups of the European Parliament and the Committee on International Trade, though, recommended the Council not to endorse the reopening of negotiations, arguing that under the current circumstances, negotiations “will not be successful in producing an outcome that would be in the interest of European citizens”.

Organizations involved believe that “there should be no negotiations with countries that show neither ambition nor action on climate change and environmental protection.”

The EU trade ministers are due to announce their decision over whether or not to reopen the negotiations of a TTIP on this Thursday, February 21.

The full statement is available here