The safety standards on which we rely daily for our food, medicines and cars. The energy and climate policies needed to save our planet. The new financial regulations designed to prevent banks from gambling with our money and creating another crisis. These are policies that should be determined in open, democratic venues where we have a say. But a group of the largest U.S. and European banks and corporations want to rewrite these safeguards behind closed doors. For over a decade, they have pushed for a new U.S. "trade" deal with Europe – the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA), which corporate proponents have branded the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – a deal that would roll back consumer protections on both sides of the Atlantic.

A "trade" deal only in name, TAFTA would require the United States and European Union (EU) to conform domestic financial laws and regulations, climate policies, food and product safety standards, data privacy protections and other non-trade policies to TAFTA rules. EU and U.S. negotiators launched TAFTA negotiations in July 2013 and plan to finish the sweeping deal by 2014.

The Center for Effective Government, the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (which CEG co-chairs), and other organizations collaborated to produce a set of factsheets on TAFTA and the impacts the agreement would have on the public protections that keep us safe and ensure our quality of life. These factsheets will be posted here as they are published.

TAFTA Studies Project Tiny Economic Gains, Ignore Major Costs from Gutting Environmental, Health, Financial and Other Safeguards [PDF]

TAFTA: Empowering Corporations to Bypass Domestic Courts and Attack Consumer and Environmental Safeguards before Extrajudicial Tribunals [PDF]

TAFTA and Chemical Regulations [PDF]

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