This US-Europe trade deal needs revision | Letters

European trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrim says that limiting the scope of the investor-state dispute settlement system in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will be difficult (US firms will not use secret corporate courts to muscle in on NHS contracts, says EU trade chief, 20 February). She is apparently tinkering with it to try to exclude publicly funded health services, but there are clearly doubts about the effectiveness of this tinkering. Why cannot she see that the simple answer is to remove this secretive ISDS court system from the treaty? Both the US and the EU have robust, transparent legal systems with courts at various levels such as state, national, federal and EU, with proper avenues for appeal. If companies think they have a case against governments, let them use these courts.

Who can predict what actions a government may need to take in the future that might impinge of the profits of investors?