This could be TTIP all over again: a trade deal between Japan and the EU -- called JEFTA -- is raising familiar alarm bells. Greenpeace has just leaked hundreds of pages of secret negotiation texts -- and it looks like this deal, like TTIP, would put everything from our democracy to environmental protections at risk.
The EU and Japan agreed on the bulk of the deal last week -- planning to finalize JEFTA by the end of the year.
We don’t have much time left to mobilize against JEFTA. But the Greenpeace leak gives us a fighting chance to put a stop to it.
Clearly, the EU Commission hasn’t learned from its TTIP debacle. The giant EU-Japan trade deal -- it affects over 630 million people -- has again been negotiated behind closed doors.
The documents leaked by Greenpeace show JEFTA could make it difficult for the EU and Japan to take the environmental measures necessary to reach their Paris Agreement obligations.
The deal also threatens to revive the TTIP-style private corporate courts that allow corporations to sue governments over rules they don’t like. At the same time, JEFTA does little to address Japan’s illegal timber trade and whaling industry -- despite calls for a crackdown from the European Parliament.
We’ve been through this fight before -- with CETA, TTIP, and the TPP. Time after time, SumOfUs members like you have come together alongside a powerful international movement, and opposed shady backdoor trade deals that harm our democracy, workers and the environment.
Let’s show Japan and Europe what people power can really do. We want Cecilia Malmström to put a stop to JEFTA now!
More information
The Guardian. 6 July 2017.