TTIP here we are again. But this time the Parliament should be able to express its position on the negotiations. After a plenary session last June where an agreement was far and after a long debate in Strasbourg, it seems that the EU Parliament may arrive to give its reccomendations on TTIP.
“ISDS is dead”, a resolution system for disputes between State and investors, said few days ago Gianni Pittella the President of Socialists and Democrats. That should be considered a step forward in the negotiations that pushed to achieve a possible agreement. The Parliament was asking to the Commission to leave this system and to propose a permanent system for the resolution of disputes between State and investors. A solution that should guarantee the transparency of the cases discussed, public auditions and independent judges publicly nominated. In the requests there is also an appeal mechanism to guarantee the coherence of judicial decisions and the jurisdictional court decisions and that of member states, and the proposal of the institution of an International Court for Investments. The text of the resolution by Lange on the meps recommendations for the agreement on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between EU and USA is the result of the work of fourteen committees in the EP.
TTIP step by step
In April the ninth round on TTIP between USA and EU took place in New York.
The main topics covered during the meeting have been the chapters of the agreement covering customs and trade facilitation, services, SMEs, sector-specific regulatory cooperation, and tariffs . While several issues remain controversial on both sides : ISDS (the EU Parliament is leaving it), Geographical Indications (GIs), the horizontal regulatory cooperation mechanism, and a separate chapter on energy. The next round of negotiations should take place this month in Brussels.
During the last year support for TTIP across Europe has varied. In particular in Germany and Austria anti-TTIP movements have grown. They are mainly concerned about data protection, ISDS and regulatory cooperation , especially the potential impact of the TTIP on food safety.
USA the main trade partner of EU
At the moment USA are the main partner in the EU trade market : they share 15.2% of the EU total trade .
In 2014, the US was the EU’s top export market, worth €310 766 million in exports, and the second EU import market, accounting for €204 802 million. So the advantages on both continents would not be few, even if lots of worries rise up on food safety regulation. Our regulations are more strict than the American ones between cloned meat, hormones meat or chicken washed in the bleach. In the meantime there are some interesting statistics reported in a EP study : 88% of companies that export to USA are small and medium‐sized enterprises and 10 million of European jobs depend on those exports. Furthermore, TTIP would represent the USA biggest market for services and investiments. Good news would come under a comprehensive agreement according to a study by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR): EU GDP could increase by between 60 and 120 billion of euro, and US GDP by between 49.5 and 94.9 billion of euro. It is estimated also an increase for the EU exports, by approximately 28% , that would mean additional 187 billion of euro.
In general it is supposed , according to the data, that the total exports for EU would increase by around 6% and 8% for USA.
TTIP here we are again. But this time the Parliament should be able to express its position on the negotiations. After a plenary session last June where an agreement was far and after a long debate in Strasbourg, it seems that the EU Parliament may arrive to give its reccomendations on TTIP.
“ISDS is dead”, a resolution system for disputes between State and investors, said few days ago Gianni Pittella the President of Socialists and Democrats. That should be considered a step forward in the negotiations that pushed to achieve a possible agreement. The Parliament was asking to the Commission to leave this system and to propose a permanent system for the resolution of disputes between State and investors. A solution that should guarantee the transparency of the cases discussed, public auditions and independent judges publicly nominated. In the requests there is also an appeal mechanism to guarantee the coherence of judicial decisions and the jurisdictional court decisions and that of member states, and the proposal of the institution of an International Court for Investments. The text of the resolution by Lange on the meps recommendations for the agreement on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between EU and USA is the result of the work of fourteen committees in the EP.
