France Threatens Outright Termination of TTIP Corporate Trade NegotiationsBy Cassius Methyl Frances junior trade minister, Matthias Fekl, is threatening outright termination of Frances involvement in the partnership, saying total lack of transparency in negotiations constitutes a democratic problem. In an interview on Monday with French newspaperSud-Ouest, Matthias Fekl said, Europe has offered many compromises, in all areas, and has received no serious offers from the Americans in return. Neither for access to their public markets, nor for access to their agricultural and food markets, which remain closed. According to Fekl, the United States must modify their position or face consequences. One of their main concerns is that the deal is highly secretive. According to Fekl, U.S. officials have access to more information than European officials and there is a serious lapse in communications. He continued, American members of parliament have access to a much higher number of documents than we do in Europe. If nothing changes, that will show that there is no willingness to ensure a mutually beneficial negotiation process, said Fekl. France is examining all its options, including abandoning the negotiations all together. The TTIP is a trade agreement that makes leaps in enforcing the same laws across the board in several countries. This is a secretive agreement made for corporate power at the expense of whatever stands in their way an agreement protested by citizens similar to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP). Details of the TTP and TTIP are not only hidden from the public, but are even hidden from government officials involved in the deals. Talks for the TTIP began around 2013. As described by Science Business, The grand aim of TTIP is to create greater regulatory harmonisation between the two blocs in areas such as car and drug safety testing, which would result in reduced costs for manufacturers. Citizens who care about the environment are concerned about the removal of important E.U. environmental regulations and other harmful side effects of this sweeping corporate reevaluation of the laws. It could be said that greater regulatory harmonization equates to greater influence from corporations on regulationsthat affect their business. In any case, citizens of every country involved are concerned. This article (France Threatens Outright Termination of TTIP Corporate Trade Negotiations) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Cassius Methyl and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, emailedits@theantimedia.org. 