German Chemical Industry Wants to Preserve TTIP Clause

Germany's chemical producers have spoken up again on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP), which is being heatedly debated across Europe.

Following a discussion in the German Bundestag on the proposed Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clause under which companies can challenge the laws of other countries they consider a hindrance to free trade, the industry association Verband der Chemischen Industrie (VCI), which in general favors the pact, said this would be "totally wrong."

While VCI general manager Utz Tillmann said the association also sees a need for reform of ISDS and suggested that "one approach might be to set up an international commercial court for appeals," he stressed that - from the industry's perspective, excluding the topic "would be the proverbial head-in-the-sand strategy."

As the debate continues to rage, even EU officials now appear to conclude that TTIP possibly could fail. "All EU member states must ratify the treaty, and at the moment I don't see a secure majority in favor," health commissioner Vytemis Andriukaitis told a German newspaper.

On the sidelines of the recent International Green Week agriculture show in Berlin, an estimated 25,000 people demonstrated against TTIP, genetically manipulated crops and factory farming.