What is the TTIP?
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in the words of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), “is an ambitious, comprehensive, and high-standard trade and investment agreement being negotiated between the United States and the European Union (EU)” launched in 2013. (Source: USTR TTIP website) In President Obama’s State of the Union Address on 12 February 2013, Obama announched the launch of the TTIP:
Now, even as we protect our people, we should remember that today’s world presents not just dangers, not just threats, it presents opportunities. To boost American exports, support American jobs and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership. And tonight, I’m announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union — because trade that is fair and free across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs (Source: Remarks by the President in the State of the Union Address, 2013)
On 13 February 2013, President José Manuel Durão Barroso of the European Commission announced the launch of TTIP negotiations:
I am delighted to announce today that the European Union and the United States have decided to initiate internal procedures to launch negotiations with the aim of reaching a ground-breaking free trade agreement: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
I am glad that following the political decision taken together with President Obama in our 2011 Summit in Washington this is now possible…
Together, we will form the largest free trade zone in the world.
So this negotiation will set the standard – not only for our future bilateral trade and investment, including regulatory issues, but also for the development of global trade rules.
A future deal will give a strong boost to our economies on both sides of the Atlantic. It will be a comprehensive agreement going beyond tariffs, by integrating markets and removing barriers. It is estimated that, when this agreement is up and running, the European economy will get a stimulus of half a per cent of our GDP – which translates into tens of billions of euros every year and tens of thousands of new jobs. (Source: Statement by President Barroso on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, 13 February 2013)
According to the European Union, the TTIP has twenty-four chapters grouped in three sections. The first section (market access) has four chapters: 1) trade in goods and customs duties, 2) services, 3) public procurement and 4) rules of origin. The section (regulatory cooperation) has three horizontal chapters: 1) regulatory cooperation, 2) technical barriers to trade (TBTs) in TTIP and 3) food safety and animal and plant health in TTIP. The regulatory cooperation section also has nine chapters devoted to specific industries including 1) chemicals 2) cosmetics, 3) engineering products, 4) information and communication technologies, 5) medical devices, 6) pesticides, 7) pharmaceuticals, 8) textiles and 9) vehicles. The rules section has eight chapters including: 1) sustainable development, 2) energy and raw materials, 3) customs and trade facilitation, 4) small and medium-sized enterprises, 5) investment protection and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), 6) state-state dispute settlement, 7) competition policy and 8) intellectual property and geographical indications.
On chapter 3.6 (State-State Dispute Settlement), the EU provides insight into its strategic objectives:
TTIP would be based on the WTO’s successful dispute settlement system and would feature important innovations, such as:
- enabling the EU and US to decide in advance which arbitrators are eligible to sit on panels, rather than choosing them on a case-by-case basis; this would increase mutual trust in the arbitrators and their rulings;
- ensuring even greater transparency by:
– holding hearings in public;
– allowing interested parties, such as non-governmental organisations, to give their views in writing;
– publishing all views submitted to the panel of arbitrators. (Source: Inside TTIP)
KEI commentary on TTIP
July 16, 2015. KEI analysis of the EU’s TTIP position paper on intellectual property, /node/2281
July 15 2015. KEI: A Positive Agenda for TTIP – Statement delivered to TTIP Stakeholder events Round 10, Brussels, /node/2280
June, 12, 2015. What Would a Good Trade Agreement Look Like? The Huffington Post.
June 12, 2015. Harvey Bale, former Director General of IFPMA, says Fast Track “favors the powerful over the weak”. /node/2250
October 2, 2014, KEI Notes & Comments at TTIP Seventh Round of Negotiations at Stakeholder Event, /node/2105
October 2, 2014, What PhRMA Wants from TTIP, /node/2106
July 1, 2014, EU’s TTIP Anti-Transparency Rules laid out in DG-Trade letter to USTR, /node/2033
June 12, 2014, TTIP: Anti-Transparency Rules laid out in USTR letter to DG-Trade, /node/2021
May 22, 2014,KEI Notes on TTIP 5th Round: How to engage in a dialogue without access to the text? /node/2013
March 28, 2014, Leaked EU analysis of TTIP IPR negotiations, /node/1984
Commentary and reporting by others on TTIP negotiation on knowledge goods
CORRECT!V openTTIP repository of leaked TTIP materials.
January 28, 2015, List of 16 representatives of European trade associations and NGOs advising the European Commission on TTIP, CORRECT!V.