Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 17 September 2016 New step of TTIP and CETA negotiations sparked a wave of protest in Germany and the Czech Republic

On Saturday, tens of thousands of people gathered to protest against EU-USA and EU-Canada trade agreements in seven cities across Germany. The Czech Pirate Party organized the similar protest in Prague, although the event was of limited size (approximately two dozen participants). The dialogue on the economic cooperation between the EU and the USA started as early as in the 1990s. In 2013, the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) were revived. In the case of realization, this partnership will create the biggest free trade market in the world. Nowadays, the negotiation process takes a new stage and that provokes a new wave of protests.

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) covers cooperation between the EU and Canada. This agreement was already signed in 2013 and waits for the ratification before coming into force.

Opponents of these agreements say that these partnerships could result in job-losses, as well as they could change the European standards for the worse. They also claim that the main winners of this cooperation will be banks and huge economic organizations, not ordinary people.

It is worth mentioning that among the opponents of these agreements is the French Government. The President of France, Francois Hollande states that the agreement could not be reached until “the imbalance is obvious” in the EU-USA negotiations, while the main supporter of the cooperation is the German government.