The beat against free trade deals goes on. Hello, Angela Merkel.
Tens of thousands of people protested in European cities on Saturday against planned free trade deals with the United States and Canada they say would undermine democracy and lower food safety, environmental and labor standards.
Organizers -- an alliance of environmental groups, labor unions and opposition parties -- said 320,000 people took part in rallies in seven German cities, including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt. Police put the figure at around 180,000.
Smaller protests were also planned in other European cities, including Vienna and Salzburg in Austria and Gothenburg and Stockholm in Sweden.
In Berlin, demonstrators waved banners reading "STOPP CETA - STOPP TTIP", another placard said "People over profits".
The demonstrations are against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States and the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada, currently being negotiated by the European Union's executive with the respective governments across the Atlantic.
Opposition in Europe to the trade deals has risen over the past year, with critics saying the pacts would hand too much power to big multinationals at the expense of consumers and workers by establishing arbitration courts to settle disputes between companies and governments.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom defended the planned trade deals and accused the opponents of deliberately heating up the debate with "horror stories and lies".
"The idea that TTIP will lower environmental standards is simply not true," Malmstrom told German daily Bild.
"Also the assertion that we'll be flooded with genetically modified food is simply wrong. Our democracy of course won't be undermined as some seem to believe."
The charge of horror stories and lies is an interesting one coming from an EU bureaucrat, most of whom know a lot about lies and horror tales. See Brexit. See Juncker. As for GMOs we all know about the Bayer and Monsanto deal. Maybe the good bureaucrat who is so upset wants to publicly vote to veto the deal?
reuters.com/article/us-eu-usa-ttip-id
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