The Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) will be a massive catastrophe for workplace health & safety standards, amongst other things, if and when it comes into law.

It represents a huge "race to the bottom "on work safety, as standards stand to be lowered to those in the US and other countries where standards are lower than they are in the UK.

We know all this from results of similar trade agreements between different countries, as well as finding out about the leaked content of the secret talks as they develop.

That's why the Hazards Campaign are among the many supporters of the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) campaign to oppose it at all stages before it comes into law.

An introduction to the principles can be heard in a War on Want clip on YouTube.  

This trade deal, between the US and EU, is not about lowering trade tarrifs which are already as low as possible, but allowing corporations to maximise profits by ploughing through our rights and health.  

The 3 main planks of it, as explained in the clip, are:

• de-regulation e.g. of regulations governing the use of chemicals, food safety etc
• privatisation of public services e.g. health, which would make any privatisation easier, an irreversible move due to the next item
• a separate legal system called the Investor State Disputes Settlement (ISDS) where corporations can take governments to court and sue for vast sums of money if their profits are threatened, effectively prohibiting them from banning substances or reversing a privatisation, etc.