Lucas,
Bacon with a side of ractopomine.
Chicken washed down with chlorine.
Bet you didn't realize those little "extras" could be part of tonight's dinner.
Many foods in the U.S. are laced with chemicals that are currently banned in Europe.
Any chance we have of strengthening our food safety standards could be derailed if the 600 corporate giants sitting as official U.S. trade advisors get their way with a proposed U.S.-EU "trade" deal, the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA).
Negotiations are slated to start in June. Sign our petition against this corporate-backed agenda and we'll make sure Congress hears your voice.
But your dinner plate isn't the only thing under attack.
Big Business wants to get rid of the best public interest policies on either side of the Atlantic: our tougher financial regulation rules; Europe's better consumer privacy protections and Internet freedom rights. (Corporation's official term for the laws they want to kill in the trade negotiations is "trade irritants," by the way).
TAFTA would also expand the extreme investor-state system, which would elevate individual corporations to the same status as sovereign nations signing the agreement — giving them the power to directly sue countries in foreign tribunals over policies they claim hurt their bottom line. This outrageous system would allow these corporations to demand taxpayer money from countries as compensation for regulations they don't like.
We couldn't make this up if we tried.
Say you're with us, committed to making sure TAFTA does not become a Trans-Atlantic torpedo sinking the public safeguards we all rely on.
Negotiations haven't started yet, so we still have a fighting chance to make our voices heard.
Remember, they might have billions of dollars, but they don't have you.
Add your name now and we'll deliver your opinion to Congress.
That's critical because the corporations pushing this deal are telling Congress that no one is worried about this agreement — as if having this sort of race-to-the-bottom deal is somehow OK because it is with Europe?
We're in this together and together we can make the difference.
Thanks — and stay tuned for more,
Maggie Henderson
Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch