Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the delegation here this afternoon. At one level everyone agrees that trade between countries and regions is a positive thing. I do not think there is anyone present who would disagree with my comment. However, trade needs to be based on fairness, sustainability and respect for citizens. There are trade agreements with countries that have a poor human rights record.

Part of the difficulty with TTIP is that there has been no real debate on it in Ireland. There have been catchy headlines along the lines of "Over 500 billion positives" regarding trade. Underneath all that there has been no debate. Therefore, I welcome the fact we are here today to discuss this matter for the first time. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Union Affairs had people in last week and the week before but that was the first time we had a debate on the matter.

Would the delegation agree there has been secrecy surrounding the negotiations, particularly in Ireland and right across Europe but not in the US? During the third round, 50 stakeholders were brought in to take part in a debate. Does the delegation think that would be a positive thing for the Irish Government and others involved in the negotiations to do? Should we include everyone who will be impacted by these negotiations, for example, the trade union movement that represents workers or sectors such as the beef industry and agrifood? Would their inclusion be a positive move? If we do not have such scrutiny, people will ask where are we going and what are we being sucked into in regard to this matter. It would be positive to have such scrutiny to develop this matter.

The elimination of regulation, such as non-alignment tariffs, which were mentioned, and the elimination of blockages for business were put forward by the promoters of TTIP. No-one would oppose anything that eliminates blockages to business and eliminates bureaucratic hurdles. However, some of the areas covered by non-tariff measures are very sensitive such as food and beverages, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and automotives. In terms of balance, safeguarding public policy in these areas is probably the most crucial aspect.

In terms of a common standard, we must ask ourselves the following questions. Will the standard go up or down? Are we dumbing it down? Will we have a level playing field? Everyone agrees with a level playing field but we know to our cost that some countries have higher regulations than others in this matter.

With regard to investor to state dispute settlements, I can give an example. Last week the Seanad held a debate on the packaging of cigarettes and tobacco products. One of the issues that arose under this policy in Australia, for instance, was that court cases were taken against the Australian Government by some of the companies. That would be a concern for me, as it would be for any reasonable person. Fracking caused similar difficulties for the Federal Government in Quebec. Fracking is a controversial issue here. Does the delegation believe that the inclusion of an investor to state dispute settlement measure is a negative or positive step - if there are positives, I would like to hear them - in the context of EU countries having a policy without fear of unfair litigation? That is one of the policy areas we would like to tease out and hear more about, particularly from companies, and I have given two examples.

With regard to EU trade, five papers have been prepared in this area and four of them have been fairly positive. One paper was commissioned by the United Left in the European Parliament and the group gave its submission to the Joint Committee on European Affairs. It was a bit critical but such papers help the debate. We need to examine all of these matters. Everyone has spoken about the positives but that group suggested there could be negatives in some cases such as employment. Some countries will do well with the increase in trade but there is a danger that some will not be able to compete with cheaper exports. That situation will affect not only trade between the US and Ireland but trade within Europe. Some countries do not have such high regulations in respect of climate change, for example, and these are additional costs, which means those countries will face difficulties. One can say that this matter forms part of the debate but we are not hearing that and that is why I keep coming back to this matter.