Stop TTIP - Defend the NHS

Head Office Circular No. NP/161/14/MC

To the Secretary all Branches,
Council of Executive members,
Regional Councils and Regional Offices.

Thursday 21st August 2014

Dear Colleagues,

Stop TTIP – Defend the NHS
TTIP, the US/EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a ‘free trade’ agreement between the world two biggest economies, being negotiated now. TTIP is not about trade. It is in fact a corporate coup that will severely undermine the ability of governments to challenge multi-nationals.
There are two threats to the NHS. If the deal is agreed with an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) process in it, corporate vultures circling the NHS – many of them American – could sue a future Government for billions in secret, international tribunals if it tries to take privatised elements of the NHS back into the public sector. Secondly, TTIP is more than a normal tariff-reduction trade deal – it could open up the NHS more even than the current Government’s reforms to the private sector.
38 Degrees have launched an e-petition which I encourage you to sign. It can be found here: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/vince-cable-fix-ttip#petition
However, TTIP is not just an attack on the NHS. In light of this, there is a broad grassroots campaign in Britain called Stop TTIP  which seeks to halt the negotiations on this permanently-damaging, secretive ‘trade’ deal by informing people of the effects that it will have and encouraging them to actively oppose the deal. Stop TTIP’s website can be accessed here: http://stopttip.net/what-is-ttip/

Yours sincerely,



Mick Cash
Acting General Secretary