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Water Cannons Used Against Peaceful Anti-TTIP Protestors: the Next ACTA Revolt?
Glyn Moody (946055) writes "The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), potentially the world's biggest trade agreement, has been negotiated behind closed doors for nearly a year now. Apart from what we learn from a few official releases — and an increasing number of leaks — we still don't really know what is being agreed in the name of 800 million people in the U.S. and EU. When a peaceful anti-TTIP protest was held outside yet another closed-doors meeting in Belgium, the local police sent in the water cannons and arrested nearly 300 people in what seems an extreme over-reaction. Will TTIP turn into the next ACTA revolt?"
Expecting government to be accountable to you, and stuff.
They are accountable. When the negotiations are done, each country can either accept it or reject it through a democratic process. The whole point of these trade agreements is to gain broad economic advantages instead of narrow special interests, protectionism, and subsidies. Opening up the negotiating process would allow all those vested interests and rent seekers to apply pressure to preserve their privileges, and end up sabotaging the process. That is exactly what happened with the Doha negotiations, that have dragged on for 13 years, and achieved nothing. These protesters portray themselves to be representing the interests of the "common people" when the truth is the exact opposite.