WASHINGTON, DC — The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), and its affiliated aviation and maritime unions today urged President Obama to reject the job-killing proposals by the European Union (EU) to include aviation and maritime transport services in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement.
“We are not interested in seeing the U.S. aviation and maritime industries – and the good jobs they support – bartered away in a broader trade agreement with Europe,” said TTD President Edward Wytkind. “These industry sectors have always been excluded from bilateral and multilateral trade agreements — and for good reason. Aviation and maritime are critically important to our national security and economy.”
The EU’s persistent efforts to water down or eliminate U.S. laws that limit foreign ownership and control of U.S. airlines have been repeatedly rebuffed by our government and Congress. Similarly, the EU has pushed for wrongheaded maritime reforms that would dismantle the Jones Act, a key pillar for maintaining a viable U.S. Merchant Marine and the critical defense and emergency missions it leads. Those proposals have also been rejected to date.
“The EU’s thinly veiled trade demands amount to a lopsided deal that would benefit European business interests at the expense of U.S. maritime and aviation employees,” Wytkind said. “We will make the case to the President that his negotiators should hold firm against the EU’s aviation and maritime proposals.”
CONTACT: Jonna Huseman, jonnah@ttd.org, 202-628-9262
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