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INFAMOUS EU-US trade deal TTIP could lead to a new financial crisis and fresh taxpayer bailouts if signed, anti-poverty campaigners warned yesterday.
An alliance of industrial giants, including British American Business and the Institute of International Bankers, is pushing for financial deregulation to be built into the deal.
But the set of rules it would replace, like the Dodd-Frank Act in the US, were designed specifically to prevent a new financial crisis.
The attempt has been blocked by President Barack Obama’s administration, but is backed by the European Commission.
War on Want senior trade campaigner Mark Dearn said: “The European Commission has learned nothing from the 2008 financial crisis.
“It’s a scandal that the finance sector, backed by the European Commission, is trying to use TTIP to scrap rules and regulations designed to end ‘too big to fail’ and stop taxpayers footing the bill for greedy and reckless bankers.
“The regulation introduced in the US was a step in the right direction and much stronger than anything introduced by the EU.
“This could now be all undone by TTIP, triggering another financial crisis and more misery for millions of people.
“The US government must continue to reject these foolish demands.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has recently promised to “kill” the deal if elected Prime Minister in 2020, just before the expected signing.
Noting last week that “many people are concerned, rightly, that it could open up public services to further privatisation and make privatisation effectively irreversible,” he said: “I share those concerns.”