At a GUE/NGL workshop yesterday on TTIP, a top European Commission economist dismissed new studies that prove TTIP is not a sustainable growth strategy for the European economy as it puts more pressure on labour through increased competition.

Lucien Cernant, from DG Trade, defended the Commission's model as it focuses on tariff measures. However, Jeronim Capaldo, from Tafts University in the United States, said the analysis in his report 'TTIP: European disintegration, unemployment, and instability' looks at the bigger picture as it takes aggregate demand and employment into account.

GUE/NGL MEP Helmut Scholz, shadow rapporteur for the group on TTIP, stressed: “While the Commission studies all project large increases in exports, the Capaldo report based on the UN Global Policy Model approach paints a more realistic picture, picking up more sensible assumptions on macroeconomic adjustment, employment dynamics, and global trade. The study shows a prolonged and substantial dislocation of labour. These are the kinds of assessments we need. How can the Commission continue to say that TTIP is a strategy for jobs?

“TTIP will have a deep impact on our everyday lives, on how we produce and consume – on both sides of the Atlantic. We need more discussion like this on TTIP that counters the messages coming out of the Commission and some member states. We can't just have blind faith in the trickle-down theory.”

The workshop also included an intense debate on the plans for 'Regulatory cooperation' in TTIP, and un upcoming workshop will concentrate specifically on this topic.

Yesterday's workshop follows on from a GUE/NGL-commissioned study published last April which also found shortcomings in influential European Commission-endorsed TTIP impact assessments.

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:
Emily Macintosh +32 470 85 05 08
Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20
European United Left / Nordic Green Left
European Parliamentary Group