UNIONS from three countries have joined forces to resist controversial plans for an international trade deal which would force governments to privatise public services, they announced yesterday.

The Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is being negotiated behind closed doors between the European Union and the United States.

If implemented it would force governments to offer public service provision to the private sector and give multinational corporations the right to sue governments which pass laws that interfere with their profits, such as health and safety regulations.

South East Region of the Trades Union Congress has joined union groups Nord Pas de Calais in France and West Flanders Hainault in Belgium to urgently lobby Euro-MPs to reject the deal when a preliminary vote takes place in the European Parliament next week.

The decision for a united front was made at an international trades union conference in Kortrijk in Belgium on Thursday this week.