Where's your seat at the table?

A statement by the Center for International Environmental Law criticizing the lack of public participation and the excessive influence of industry lobbyists, specifically Cosmetics Europe, in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations.

• There is a significant disparity in chemical safety regulations between the European Union and the United States, with the EU banning 1,300 potentially-hazardous chemicals compared to only 11 banned under US law.
• Cosmetics Europe, representing over 4,000 companies in the EU, has lobbied for TTIP legislation to remove regulatory differences between the US and EU and has formally requested that industry experts in safety assessment and market control be added to the EU negotiation team.
• The primary goal of TTIP is to harmonize laws to reduce industry compliance costs, which the author argues leads to a 'lowest common denominator' approach rather than elevating protection standards for workers, consumers, and the environment.
• The TTIP negotiation process is characterized by extreme secrecy and an imbalance of power, where industry groups have written draft sections for negotiators while public interest and civil society groups are denied meaningful participation.

APA

Kistler, A. (2015). Where's your seat at the table? Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wheres-your-seat-at-the-table/

Chicago

Kistler, Amanda. Where's your seat at the table? Center for International Environmental Law, 2015. https://www.ciel.org/wheres-your-seat-at-the-table/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Kistler |first1=Amanda |title=Where's your seat at the table? |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=21 January 2015 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wheres-your-seat-at-the-table/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{kistler2015wheres, author = {Kistler, Amanda}, title = {{Where's your seat at the table?}}, publisher = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2015}, month = jan, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wheres-your-seat-at-the-table/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }