THE UK is preparing to exit the EU at a time when Donald Trump’s election success is being seen as the final nail in the coffin of a new Atlantic trade deal that had the potential to infiltrate and “privatise” Scotland’s NHS.
The Republican’s surprise victory in the US presidential contest earlier this month left the 28-bloc union facing what EU President Donald Tusk described as “uncertainty of transatlantic relations”.
But it also has implications for the long-running and highly controversial negotiations between the EU and the US – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
READ MORE: Beyond Brexit: Hospitals risk losing EU staff lifeline after Brexit
Civil liberties groups insist that it was their protests – not Mr Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda – that really killed it off before the billionaire was voted to become the new incumbent in White House.
Mr Trump has made clear that he does not want new deals that would open the US market to more imports, something both TTIP and a similar deal with the Pacific countries, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, would signal.
Nonetheless, the result led German Chancellor Angela Merkel to concede last Thursday that negotiations would “not be concluded now” in light of Mr Trump’s election.
Whether the arrangement is truly dead in the water or simply temporarily stalled remains to be seen, however.
TTIP negotiations have been ongoing, largely in secret, since 2013 between the EU and the US.
The vision was for a bi-lateral trade agreement which would reduce the regulatory barriers to trade for big business in areas including healthcare, food safety law, environmental legislation, and banking regulations.
For example, it would open Europe’s market to imports of US beef and potentially allow corporations to sue governments over adverse policy decisions, such as putting cigarettes in plain packages.
But more worrying still, said some, was its potential to infiltrate and “privatise” Scotland’s NHS.
In September 2014, days before Scotland went to the polls in the independence referendum, Scotland’s former chief medical officer Sir Harry Burns said fears over the impact TTIP could have on Scotland’s NHS was one of the key reasons he would vote ‘Yes’ – to get Scotland out of the UK and, by default, the EU.
Sir Harry, who served as CMO from 2005 until April 2014, wrote in the Sunday Herald that TTIP meant the UK was “facing increasing privatisation of the NHS and there is very little anyone can do about it in Scotland so long as we remain part of the UK”.
Although control over the NHS in Scotland is devolved to Holyrood, the UK’s membership of the EU meant that Scotland’s health service would be equally exposed to what Sir Harry then described as “a free trade agreement of unprecedented scale which will affect Scotland’s ability to control its NHS”.
READ MORE: Beyond Brexit: Hospitals risk losing EU staff lifeline after Brexit
He added: “Once it has been ratified by the European Parliament, its implementation will be mandatory across all countries, including Scotland if it remains in the UK. If agreed, TTIP is likely to give transnational companies such as American healthcare providers the legal right to bid for all government spending, including spending on health where private companies are already running those services. This is the case in England.
“It also includes provisions to allow companies to sue governments if they take action which adversely affect future profits.”
Of course, with TTIP paralysed by protesters and Mr Trump, it may be that even without Brexit the UK’s NHS would have been spared TTIP anyway.
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