I'm disappointed to see so many people objecting to a free trade agreement that would benefit both the US and EU tremendously. When people oppose such things, I always ask whether they think the US would be better off as a patchwork of 50 countries, each with their own tariffs etc., or if they think the EU was better when you needed to go through passport control every time you crossed a border and products needed to go through separate sets of approvals in every country before they could be sold.
Free trade does a lot more for people than national sovereignty. I rather doubt anyone here thinks we'd be better off with 180 national networks instead of a global internet, but that's what most of you are arguing for where physical goods are concerned. If it were up to me I'd like to see unrestricted movement across borders of goods, capital and people.
Excuse me, but this is not about "free trade" per se. Trade between Europe and America already is to a large extent free. Why do you think it has the volume it already has today? So free trade rhetoric is misplaced here. What TTIP is about is about regulations, for example concerning food or medicine, patent and copyright laws, etc. And I, for one, abhor US patent laws, or their blatant and complete disregard for the environment or animal beings, etc. I don't want your crap food here, your GMO conglomerates, or your patent lawyers. And for sure I don't want Germany or France to be financially liable to some faceless big corp when it rules certain things in the interest of the people it is supposed to protect and represent! Sure, do what you want, you can have your "standards" at your side of the Atlantic and continue to get reamed by your political elite and Washington lawyers. But don't export them here, to us!
What I find particularly galling is how TTIP proponents dangle a decimal point rise in GDP in front of us when it is not even possible to forecast accurately the economy as it is. What is more, let's go with it and assume it came to pass -- GDP miraculously increased by what they said it would as a result. What about the costs incurred in terms of loss of (even more) control over our food supply chain, increase in health care costs, more draconian imposition of your patent and copyright laws, etc etc.
Nobody with a job and not a specialist can be reasonably expected to get to know in detail what such agreements entails. So there needs to be a basis of trust that the US will not fuck us over. And here you seem to forget: The US, since Adolf Bush and his co-captain Barack Hitler, is doing its best to lose massive amounts trust and goodwill here, even in traditionally pro-America Germany. You don't have much credit left, both literally and figuratively, better not squander it. We believe you less and less. Just go away. You have already taken more than enough.
I'm from Ireland. Your ranting reminds me of the arguments nationalists make against greater EU integration. However, I have no wish to see the EU revert to being a bunch of mercantilist nations, and I don't support US-EU mercantilism either. The best way to make the US more like the EU is to deal with it, not lie on the ground like a child throwing a tantrum.
Perhaps you'd care to get your facts before you buy into Washington rhetoric then, you grown-up… How big is US-EU trade at the moment? In absolute and relative terms (ie compared to other links)? And how high exactly are the tariff barriers at the moment? And what is the TTIP actually about?
So what exactly does opposition to TTIP in particular and trade negotiations w/o public dialogue or debate in general have to do with mercantilism or Irish nationalism?!
Also, you might also think that after most of the trade barriers have already been removed, what remains probably does so for a reason. European people just do not want GMO food, for example. Many polls in different countries always reach the same conclusion. It doesn't matter if some trade official in the pocket of Monsanto thinks it's okay. Europe is the last bastion of freedom and liberalism since Bush wrecked America's soul. It should isolate and defend itself vigorously from the US, at least until the US remembers what it once stood for in the world.
You seem to be arguing with statements I haven't made, by alleging that I don't have my facts straight and then demanding random statistics. I am not going to play word games with you.
US-EU trade is not the issue, it is already huge and it will grow without TTIP. Read what the TTIP is actually about. Implying that being against TTIP, virulently or not, is equivalent or even comparable to being nationalist or mercantilist is beyond the pale. No word games necessary, just read before you talk.
PS: And btw, why would anyone have an interest in making the US more like the EU? Who cares about what the US does to itself? I just don't want the US meddling and diluting laws and ways of life here.
Free trade does a lot more for people than national sovereignty. I rather doubt anyone here thinks we'd be better off with 180 national networks instead of a global internet, but that's what most of you are arguing for where physical goods are concerned. If it were up to me I'd like to see unrestricted movement across borders of goods, capital and people.