As clearly shown in previous interventions, there is a pressing need to denounce the real aims and consequences of the so-called "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement “, commonly known as Transatlantic Treaty or TTIP - with this initiative representing yet another contribution by the PCP to this effect.

The TTIP, as has been stressed here, is a free trade agreement being negotiated by the United States and the European Union in a secret and opaque way, behind the backs of the peoples.

We have to remember that only through the growing demand of the public knowledge of the negotiations and after the disclosure without the knowledge of the European Union of the Council’s negotiating mandate to the European Commission, the latter was forced to disclose elements, although partial and incomplete, of the agenda and content of the ongoing negotiations with the United States, finding then the continuous and active presence in these negotiations of confederations and big business representatives connected to the banks and industry - automotive, arms, pharmaceutical or food processing, among others.

It should be noted that this is a negotiation carried out by the European Union which, following the Lisbon Treaty - and among other grievous changes introduced by it – defended that the common trade policy was its "exclusive competence", at the expense of curtailing the sovereignty of States which, like Portugal, are being penalized by the resulting limitations to defend their national interests in benefit of large economic and financial groups and the directory of the great powers, under the leadership of Germany.

If materialised, the Transatlantic Treaty will mean the creation of the largest free trade area, the largest economic bloc in the world, involving about 40% of world trade.

To understand its purpose and full scope it is necessary to keep in mind the context in which it occurs, that is, an international situation marked by the deepening of the structural crisis of capitalism and a broad process of realignment of forces that is taking place worldwide.

In this context, the TTIP is the answer of the United States and the European Union to its crisis, to ensure the profitability of big transnational capital by way of an unprecedented centralization and concentration of capital, the complete mercantilization of the economic, social and cultural life, and the imposition of a social regression of a civilizational dimension.

The Transatlantic Treaty is, therefore, and as the debate has shown, an instrument with which the United States and the European Union seek to ensure the interests of big US and European capital.
In view of the crisis of over-production and over-accumulation, with the situation of economic stagnation that seems to appear - with periods of recession or anaemic growth - affecting the United States and the European Union, the major centres of imperialism seek to give a new boost to the intensification of exploitation and devaluation of the workforce, to increasing its domination into wider areas of business, the attack on the sovereignty of the States and even on formal political democracy, through the liberalization of trade and investment that TTIP would enable.

Thus, the Transatlantic Treaty aims, among other aspects, at: the elimination or reduction of tariff barriers on trade of goods, such as custom duties; the elimination or reduction of other barriers on trade of goods and services and investment, in particular those arising from national Constitutions, national laws and regulations; the gradual convergence of the regulations and standards of the European Union and the United States; or the establishment of common rules and principles between the United States and the European Union that are casted on other bilateral regional or multilateral negotiations.

In the various interventions it was made clear that, if concluded and ratified, the TTIP would mean a new step in the domination of big business in the Transatlantic area, would have serious consequences for the economy and employment and represent a new development in the offensive against labour and social rights, environmental protection, food safety, public services and national sovereignty and independence.

The TTIP contains serious threats to employment and labour and trade union rights, serving as a pretext and support to the devaluation of wages, degradation of working conditions, increased precariousness, spread of the lack of protection of labour, attack on collective bargaining.

The TTIP contains serious threats to various sectors of national manufacturing and food industry, which will be subjected to increased competition and new constraints, and advantages in some branches will outweigh the negative global impacts on small and medium-sized farms, family farming and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The TTIP contains serious threats in terms of environment, food safety and public health, while other negotiations are underway on rules which prohibit, restrict or regulate the cultivation and marketing of genetically modified organisms, the use of certain chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the use of growth hormones, antibiotics or chlorinated compounds, among other examples, always favourable to the interests of transnational companies in industry and agribusiness.

The TTIP contains serious threats to public services, the social functions of the State, and is seen as an opportunity to ensure the conditions for a new attack by big business on public services and on systems of public healthcare, education and social security - attack that due to the resistance and struggle of the workers, failed to be imposed earlier with the so-called 'Bolkestein Directive' of liberalization of services in the European Union.

The TTIP poses a serious threat to national sovereignty, the democratic regime enshrined in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, the ability of a State to define its economic and social policies. The so-called mechanism for resolving disputes between States and large economic and financial groups is rightly considered one of the most grievous points of the agenda under negotiation, a mechanism that is already foreseen by other agreements on investment liberalization. This new mechanism would allow big transnationals to bring lawsuits against States based on TTIP rules, whenever the latter consider that the legislation or the regulations adopted by the sovereign institutions of the States hurt their interests. We know of various situations where large transnational companies sued States, demanding hefty and unacceptable compensation, when they sovereignly adopted measures in defence of their economy, safeguarding public health or for environmental reasons

The Transatlantic Treaty, as well as other recent free trade and investment agreements of bilateral and regional scope, represent the way with which the United States and the European Union seek to circumvent the deadlock that exists in the negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO), aimed at the advancement of trade and investment liberalization at the international level.

A deadlock in the WTO that is inseparable from process of realignment of forces at world level and the increasing clash of interests between the great imperialist powers and the emergence and gradual affirmation of so-called emerging countries - with particular significance for countries gathered in the dynamics of the BRICS ( Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) - and important processes of regional cooperation and integration that are taking place on a sovereign, solidarity, equitable and socially oriented basis. Process of realignment of forces that, although not free from contradictions, has constituted a factor to reign in the introduction of the 'new world order' hegemonized by US imperialism and its allies.

Thus, the Transatlantic Treaty is a means by which the United States, hand in hand with the European Union, seeks to counter its relative decline - especially in the economic field - and confront the so-called emerging economies. Moreover, the ambition that lies behind and moves the TTIP was expressed with remarkable clarity by Hillary Clinton, when characterizing this Treaty as an "economic NATO". That is, with the TTIP the United States aims not only to mitigate inherent contradictions and disputes in the context of concertation-rivalry with the European Union, but to use this Treaty to enforce and ensure its hegemonic dominance worldwide.

Thus, with the agreement between the United States and the European Union, this Transatlantic Treaty would materialize and institutionalize a so-called 'new global law' and so-called 'global governance', imposed on the world under the determination and to the measure of big North American and European capital.

Although the United States and the European Union declare the intention to continue negotiations with a view to come to an agreement by the end of 2015, it should be noted that they are not free from contradictions, because common class interests coexist with specific and different interests, sometimes conflicting, between big North American and European capital.

However, it would be a mistake to adopt an expectant attitude towards a possible prevalence of contradictions regarding concerted efforts, given that the defeat of TTIP demands and calls, chiefly, for the growth of the struggle against this Treaty by the workers and peoples.

Hence the need to intensify the denunciation of the real aims of the TTIP, as well as its serious consequences for the workers, the people and the Country, as well as for North American and different European Union countries’ workers and people, increasing the broad movement for its rejection.
The greater the awareness of the real meaning and consequences of the TTIP on workers, on various layers and sectors, on the Portuguese people, who will be deeply affected by it, the stronger the resistance to its imposition.

We do not forget that there were previous attempts to impose grievous agreements and treaties against the people that were defeated as a result of the denunciation of its aims and broad popular mobilization. Remember the failure of the so-called "Multilateral Agreement on Investment ', known as' MAI' - that the Transatlantic Treaty now seeks to recover with unacceptable aspects - or the rejection of the so-called" Free Trade Area of the Americas ", the" FTAA" that United States wanted to impose on the entire American continent.

To the supporters of the TTIP, waving once more the hypothetical growth of the economy, employment and income, we remind them identical promises when joining the EEC, the creation of the 'single market' or the Economic and Monetary Union - Euro - which, as we warned then, reality would prove to be false.

Just like the Treaties - from Maastricht to Lisbon-like the Economic and Monetary Union, like the Budgetary Treaty and other policies, instruments and mechanisms of the European Union, also the TTIP is an instrument of exploitation and oppression to serve big capital.

Like every step in the European capitalist integration process has had and continues to have deep and serious consequences for the Portuguese people and for the country, also the TTIP will represent greater impositions and constraints, and increased dependence and submission of Portugal to the domination and to the dictates of big transnational capital, of the United States and the great powers of the European Union.

As we pointed out, if implemented, this Treaty would constitute a new attack on national sovereignty and independence. Faced with the unacceptable objectives and grievous consequences of the TTIP, the PCP reaffirms its rejection of this Treaty and its commitment to fight for its defeat.
And do not confuse the position of the PCP, of refusal of agreements and treaties harmful to national sovereignty and interests, with the defence of any self-centred or isolationist solution.

To the PCP, the internationalization of the economy, the great international division of labour, interdependence and cooperation among States and integration processes, correspond to realities and trends of evolution not solely of capitalism. Depending on its orientation, characteristics and aims, these processes can serve the monopolies and transnationals, or can serve the workers and peoples.
The PCP considers that nothing can force Portugal to accept the position of a secondary State, to alienate its national independence and sovereignty, and waive the right to choose its own socio-economic structures and its own political system.

Refusing the stand of national abdication of the PSD/CDS government and the complicit silence of the PS, that in view of the TTIP tries to shake its responsibility, like those who try to walk in the rain without getting wet, the PCP clearly states enough of restrictive abdications of sovereignty, of impoverishment of democracy, of unacceptable supranational impositions which clash with the interests and legitimate aspirations of the peoples.

The PCP will continue to take steps to demand that the PSD/CDS government clearly informs the Portuguese people about its position in the negotiation process and its progress, as well as the necessary, serious and participated study of the consequences of the TTIP on the Country.
The PCP will continue to undertake initiatives in order to make known the real objectives and consequences of this Treaty and to place the demand to open a broad public debate about the nature and aims of the TTIP.

The reality is here to show PCP’s reasons, by showing that one of the strongest demands emerging from a changing world we live in, is the vigorous affirmation of the richness of differences, national identities, recognition of the right of the Nations to a sovereign political power, the desire for equal rights and mutually beneficial and reciprocally enriching new forms of cooperation

The solutions to the Country's development do not mean the deepening of new and more severe constraints, further loss of sovereignty, new bridles that are an obstacle to its sovereign development and a major cause of its present decline.

On the contrary, Portugal needs, and urgently, to break free from the strong shackles that condition it and have led to the situation of a serious crisis it finds itself, as a result of a national policy in favour of monopoly capital and a European integration of submission and national conditioning, with the weight, in particular, of the impositions of the single market and the Euro.

As we have stated clearly in the National Meeting last Saturday - "No to national decline - Solutions for the country "- Portugal has to break urgently with the right-wing policy and affirm the materialisation of an alternative policy and a political alternative to the present course of disaster and national ruin.
A policy to ensure and affirm the full right of the Portuguese people to decide their own destiny and to see ensured the prevalence of national interests.

An alternative, patriotic and left-wing policy to restore the political and economic instruments that prove crucial for its development in the economic and monetary fields, trade relations and development of the productive sector and defence of national production.

A patriotic and left-wing policy which, in the European Union, rejects the imposition of EU policies harmful to the national interest and destroying the productive apparatus.

A policy to ensure and affirm the full right of the Portuguese people to decide their own destiny and to ensure the prevalence of national interests.

A policy aimed at the solution of the serious blocks closing the paths of development, like the constraints resulting from the size of an unsustainable public and foreign debt, monetary integration in the euro, the financial domination of private banks.

Three major constraints to overcome which the patriotic and left-wing policy presents feasible and viable solutions that have to do with an integrated solution of debt renegotiation, study and preparation of the Country to free itself from the submission to the Euro and the restoration of public control over banks.

Yes, we have solutions and there is a different path!

There is an alternative policy, able to answer the Country's problems and the aspirations of the workers and the people.

A policy that the PCP defends and is an irreplaceable and indispensable part of a real political alternative.

A policy based on: the promotion and valorisation of national production and creation of jobs; restoration of public control over strategic sectors and companies, in particular the financial sector; the recovery of wages, pensions and incomes of workers' and people, n defence of public services and social functions of the State, including the rights to education, healthcare and social protection; a fiscal policy that lightens the burden on workers' incomes and of micro, small and medium-sized companies and heavily taxes the income and assets of big business, its profits and financial speculation; in rejecting the submission to the impositions of the Euro and the European Union.

We have stated that it is in the hands of workers and the people to give strength to the demand for a policy that hands back to them the right to the full accomplishment of their lives. That it is in their hands and in their struggle to empower and support a real alternative project for the Country. A project that the PCP provides guarantees to achieve through the action and convergence of all democrats and patriots in rupture with the right-wing policy.

This force that is ready to assume all the responsibilities that the people wish to trust it with!