Agenda item

Council considered the following recommendation of the Corporate and Scrutiny Management Policy and Scrutiny Committee from its meeting held on 9 May 2016.

58.    Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

Recommended:  That Council be asked to reconsider part (i) of the motion detailed below in italics.

Reason:     To ensure that the motion referred to the committee by Full Council has been given due consideration.

‘Council notes that:

·     The European Union (EU) and the USA launched negotiations in July 2013 on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP);

·     Negotiations continue, seeking to protect international investors, harmonise standards, reduce tariffs and open new markets throughout the EU and USA;

·     Services within TTIP includes not just private but also public services;

·     There has been no assessment of the potential impact on local authorities and their services;

·     There has been no scrutiny or consultation with City of York Council or other local government representatives such as the Local Government Association (LGA) and our local MPs for York Central or York Outer are also unable to scrutinise the negotiating documents;

·     Our twin municipality of Munster in Germany passed a resolution in 2014 to reject TTIP;

·     Our twin municipality of Dijon in France passed a resolution in 2014 to ask for the full involvement of local authorities in free trade negotiations and public disclosure of all texts on the TTIP negotiations.

Council believes that:

·        TTIP could have a significant impact on local services, employment, suppliers and decision-making;

·        A thorough impact assessment of TTIP on local authorities must be carried out before the negotiations can be concluded;

·        The proposed Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism has been used by corporations to overturn democratic decisions by all levels of governments at significant public cost.  Local decision-making must be protected from ISDS;

·        The EU’s food, environmental and labour standards are better than those in the US and TTIP negotiations must raise and not lower these standards across the EU and USA;

·        Sourcing supplies and employment locally is important to strengthening local economies and meeting local needs.  TTIP must not impact on local authorities’ ability to act in the best interests of their communities.

Council resolves to:

Write to the Secretary of State for the Environment and Local Government, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the MPs for York Central and York Outer and all Yorkshire and the Humber MEPs, as well as the Local Government Association, raising the serious concerns of the City of York Council about the potential impact of TTIP on our local authority and the secrecy of the negotiating process”

Reason:         To ensure that the motion referred to the committee by Full Council has been given due consideration.

Councillor Craghill then moved and Councillor Kramm seconded the suspension of Standing Order 24.1 in order to amend the above TTIP recommendation in light of changes arising from Brexit.

On being put to the vote the suspension of Standing Orders was declared CARRIED.

An amendment was then proposed by Councillor D’Agorne as follows:

‘At the end of the section ‘Council notes that’ add the following additional point:

-         Since the Brexit vote, whilst the future of the TTIP negotiations between the EU and the USA is increasingly unclear, it is possible that if the EU concludes a TTIP deal with the US in the longer term, the UK could be subject to TTIP principles via whatever trade deal the UK concludes with the EU. More immediately, a very similar trade agreement between the EU and Canada (CETA) looks set to be agreed as quickly as possible. It could be enacted into UK law irrespective of any Brexit timetable. At the same time, moves to negotiate a bilateral US-UK trade agreement post-Brexit have been referred to as ‘TTIP on steroids’.

Amend the section ‘Council believes that’ as follows:

In the first, second and fifth bullet point replace ‘TTIP’ with ‘CETA and similar trade agreements based on the TTIP model’

Third bullet – delete ‘proposed’

Fourth bullet – replace ‘EU’s’ with ‘UK’s’; replace ‘TTIP’ with ‘trade’ and delete after ‘standards’ to the end of bullet point.

Under Council resolves amend as follows:

Amend the first part of the para. to update titles of Government departments/ministers, as follows ‘Writing to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the Secretary of State for International Trade, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’

Replace ‘TTIP’ with ‘CETA and any similar trade agreements based on the TTIP model’

On being put to the vote the amendment was CARRIED and

Councillor Williams then moved the motion, as amended and on

being put to the vote the amended motion was also declared CARRIED and it was

Resolved:  That the motion, as amended, be approved. ^1.