BRUSSELS – European consumer groups are worried about the effects of a proposed trade deal with the U.S., fearing a flood of risky or unsafe foodstuffs, medicines and other imports from America.
Monique Goyens, director general of The European Consumer Organization, said Tuesday “this agreement has the potential in a negative sense of changing consumer safety and consumer protection rules.”
U.S. and European Union representatives have resumed negotiations on the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Under it, products authorized for sale in America might gain automatic access to EU markets, and vice versa.
The European Union struck a similarly sweeping trade agreement with Canada last month, later touting the deal as boon for the zone of roughly 500 million Europeans, notably its exporters.
Read more: Will new trade pact with EU create jobs, or see thousands vanish?
Goyens and leaders of other European citizens associations say that would jeopardize the wellbeing of Europeans and short-circuit EU health and safety standards, which Monika Kosinska, director of the European Public Health Alliance, called the world’s most stringent.
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