LAST week saw the conclusion of the latest round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and the USA in Brussels. While a sensible trade agreement across the North Atlantic could present a huge opportunity for businesses in Scotland to expand into key markets abroad, the latest news from the talks does not fill me with enormous hope for the future.

We’re now approaching the fourth year of discussions on TTIP, and while I reflect on the developments ahead of a fringe meeting on this topic at the SNP’s spring conference this month, the most optimistic view of the situation would be that, since I secured the first debate on this issue in the House of Commons last July, at least we’ve seen the arguments for reform strengthen.

That said, at best, the concrete progress that has been made has been peripheral and the pace of change glacial. The legal opinion secured by the trade union Unite from Michael Bowsher QC at the end of last year further reinforced the case to exempt the NHS from the agreement. SNP parliamentarians in Brussels and Westminster have joined with the SNP Government in Edinburgh to consistently make the case that public services in general, and our NHS in particular, should be explicitly excluded from the agreement. This new opinion is clear that without addressing this issue directly in the final agreement our NHS is at risk of privatisation by the back door.

At the same time, the political arguments for securing reform have significantly intensified. With the referendum on our membership of the EU now scheduled for the summer, the UK Government must surely at the very least be seen to be making Europe work for our national interests, and not against them. Despite this, I’m dismayed by the apparent lack of urgency displayed by officials in Whitehall who are leading our contribution to the negotiations. Rather than using the negotiating power of the UK to our advantage in these discussions, and securing the key changes that we need to secure a plurality of support for the deal, they seem from the outside to be more satisfied with parroting the same old position.

It’s particularly disappointing that in the rounds of negotiations and discussions that David Cameron and his UK Government have had with other countries in the EU over the past few months, he’s not sought once to use his leverage to address concerns relating to TTIP. It’s a enormous wasted opportunity.

The EU hopes to conclude the dialogue this year, prior to the US Elections in November. While the public will have to wait for the final deal to be published, we’ve recently seen the tiniest progress towards a more transparent negotiation progress, now that the Tory Government has acceded to demands to allow Westminster parliamentarians access to classified TTIP documents, including consolidated texts, on the same basis as our MEPs in Brussels. This is, as campaigners Global Justice Now said to me recently, the very, very least the UK Government could do.

Although the final deals of this Whitehall “reading room” have to be announced, if the process is anything like that our European parliamentarians have to follow it will not instil much confidence in the process itself.

In order to see the negotiation documents, MEPs are required to sign a 14-page document which states that “EU institutions are a valuable target” for spies, and which goes on to spell out the dangers of espionage. They are also then required to agree not to share any of the contents of the documents they see with the people they represent. Our elected representatives are then required to leave all their personal effects in a locked cupboard, as officials are concerned that they might otherwise be able to smuggle in a tiny camera to record the documents in a fashion akin to a James Bond movie.

They are then personally escorted into a secure room. The relevant papers are removed from a locked cabinet, and are able to be read, albeit in the company of an EU official.

If this is what the UK Government are offering, it’s a start, but it’s nowhere near the full level of transparency that campaigners have been calling for as part of this process.

The campaign against TTIP has been a marathon, not a sprint. Even now as we approach the end of the negotiations, the progress that’s been made to address the real and serious concerns many of us have on the details of the deal has been tortuously slow. We need to turn up the pressure on the UK Government if we’re to end up with a deal we can all support.