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2)
call for the exclusion of all public services, including education and health, public
procurement, public utilities and public transport (whether in public or private ownership)
from the negotiations;
3)
demand no levelling down in relation to consumer, employment rights or environmental
protection;
4)
insist on genuine consultation with civil society organisations, including trade unions;
5)
work with like-minded organisations, including the TUC, ETUC and other Unions, in opposing
all detrimental aspects of these new generation of Free Trade Agreements and in
campaigning for alternative EU trade and investment policies; and
6)
welcome the decision of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Trade to exclude the audio-visual
sector from the initial TTIP agenda, and lobby the UK government to oppose its future
inclusion, in order to preserve the European Cultural Exception and the unique national
nature of arts and entertainment activity within Europe.
(13)
The GFTU should now call for the TTIP negotiations to be halted and adopt a clear position
of outright opposition to TTIP, and the other trade agreements currently being negotiated,including
CETA and TISA whilst continuing to monitor progress and press for improvements to promote decent
jobs and growth and safeguard labour, consumer, environmental and health and safety standards
through lobbying, campaigning and negotiating, in alliance with Unions, the ETUC, the AFLCIO and
campaigning groups such as the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom.
(14)
Congress agrees that all pending and future trade agreements entered into by the EU should
be subject to a vigorous and transparent regime of scrutiny and consultation, ensuring that they are
of benefit and acceptable to the millions of people affected by their content, in all countries covered
by the agreement.
Resolution 21
Support UK Manufacturing
(1)
The GFTU believes that it is imperative that UK manufacturing is supported in order that
there can be no over-reliance on financial services and the service sector ever again.
(2)
Conference believes that the decline of UK manufacturing must be reversed through an
interventionist industrial and manufacturing policy to drive the economy forward which the current
coalition government is failing to do.
The ConDem coalition government’s growth strategy and manufacturing policy has failed to
materialise.
(3)
Conference also notes the support given to German manufacturing companies by their
federal and national governments with the government, unions and employers working together –
which ahs protected German manufacturing from the worst of the economic crisis and defended
their strategically important manufacturing companies.
(4)
Conferences therefore calls for the GFTU to campaign to support and defend UK
manufacturing.