On May 13, 2015 the UK-based advocacy group for chemical safety CHEM Trust announced that they – along with 28 further organizations from the EU and the U.S. – have sent a letter to the chair of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade (INTA) asking the committee to support exclusion of chemicals from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). In the letter, the organizations argued that chemicals should be excluded from TTIP because i) EU and U.S. citizens need better protection from toxic chemicals and not new burdensome procedures, ii) the U.S. sees the EU’s approach to hazardous chemicals as trade barriers and claims that the EU’s approach to endocrine disrupting chemicals could be contrary to TTIP’s objectives, and iii) proposed regulatory cooperation seeks to harmonize and simplify all regulatory actions which could weaken existing EU chemicals and pesticide rules as well as limit the ability of U.S. states to regulate toxic chemicals. The letter tied in with a vote in the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) in April 2015, who decided to call on the European Commission to exclude chemicals and four other health-related areas from TTIP negotiations. INTA will vote on their resolution on TTIP on May 28, 2015. The full European Parliament will vote on its recommendations to the European Commission regarding the negotiations for TTIP on June 10, 2015.
Read more
CHEM Trust (May 13, 2015). “We write to chair of EU Parliament Trade Committee: Chemicals must be excluded from TTIP trade negotiations.”
The European Chemical Industry Council (May 13, 2015). “The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: Landing the right deal.”
Reference
CHEM Trust (May 12, 2015). “Letter to Bernd Lange, Member of the European Parliament.” (pdf)
