Hannover MESSE and TTIP

Some folks in Hannover Germany are not happy about TTIP.

The Hannover MESSE trade show is being held April 25 to 29 in Hannover, Germany.

I’m in Hannover Germany this week, attending Hannover MESSE, the world’s largest industrial manufacturing trade show, as a guest of Siemens Corp. The opening ceremony is later today (Sunday, April 24) and President Barack Obama will join German Chancellor Angela Merkel to open the show.

According to reports, the topic of Obama’s speech will be the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), an agreement that is primarily a deal to drop tarriff and regulatory trade barriers between the U.S. and European Union countries. The supporters, as usual, claim that it will generate large amounts of jobs and revenue for both sides.

I haven’t been paying much attention to international trade news lately. My focus has been on the first-place Chicago White Sox and plant reliability and maintenance. But, yesterday, I got a first-hand dose of international trade and TTIP.

I arrived a day early in Hannover, so had a rare business-trip opportunity to be a tourist. That meant an afternoon exploring the city of Hannover, particularly the old section. I love old architecture, so it was real treat for me.

My day started by looking out my hotel-room window and seeing a dozen or more police SUVs, two full-sized police buses, and a large number of officers. I figured they were assembled for a day of training but didn’t see any urgent or organized activity.

When I got to the city, I also noticed a large police presence, but didn’t give it much thought because there were a lot of people in the town, it was a Saturday, the weather was nice, and I’ve never been to Hannover so what did I know.

One thing that caught my eye was that a good portion of the people were carrying flags that suggested they wanted nothing to do with TTIP. I thought that carrying around flags on a Saturday while shopping was a unique way of protesting something, but to each their own. I asked a couple of people what TTIP was all about, but couldn’t find anyone who could explain it in broken, limited English. Again, I just thought it was interesting and went about my touring.

I really started to pay attention when I saw this sign:

Some folks in Hannover Germany are not happy about TTIP.

That clearly suggested to me that TTIP was more than just a local squabble. I asked the owner of the sign about TTIP. He understood what he was protesting and spoke English well enough that he could explain it to me. He also suggested that, as an American, I should be opposed to it because it wasn’t any different than the NAFTA agreement. He tempered himself, but it was also clear that he wasn’t at all happy with the U.S. and felt that we were, once again, intruding on other people’s business. Fortunately, I had zero knowledge so was in no way able to agree or disagree. I thanked him for the information and went back to tourist mode.

When I returned to my room, I immediately looked up TTIP and at least informed myself enough to understand the basics. I also learned that somewhere in the town there was a peaceful protest involving some 30,000 people and it became clear to me that the police presence in the plaza outside my hotel room was the staging area for a large force of officers who spent the day ready to deal with any problems.

Here’s a link to the BBC story about the protest. It contains links to several stories about TTIP so you can decide for yourself whether it’s good or bad, if you’re interested.

The opening ceremony is Sunday at 6:00 local time. It’ll be interesting to hear what our president and the German Chancellor have to say. It’ll be even more interesting to attend this massive trade show and learn what lies ahead for manufacturing from a global perspective.–Gary L. Parr, editorial director