What’s up with TTIP?
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is supposed to cut duties and import taxes between Europe and the United States, but so far it hasn’t much to show for itself.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is supposed to cut duties and import taxes between Europe and the United States, but so far it hasn’t much to show for itself. The 12th round of negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US appears to be caught in the quicksand of a new phenomenon: the politicization of trade negotiations. Never has a trade agreement aroused such deep concern and strong emotions (especially in Germany and France but also in Italy). The Stop TTIP campaign has collected over a million signatures across Europe by playing on two central fears: the surrender of EU member states’ control over national legislation to multinational corporations, and the worsening of European food security standards. The pro-agreement lobby is nuanced, complex and appreciable only to a well-informed public.
What will be in the treaty? Who stands to gain? Are the arguments for and against founded? The absence of a publicly accessible draft document makes it difficult to judge. But the European Commission has demonstrated significant transparency by publishing hundreds of pages related to the course of the negotiations, the mandate it received from the European Parliament, and some of the proposals for the text of the agreement. Taken together, these provide insight into the state of discussions.
This content if for our subscribers
Subscribe for 1 year and gain unlimited access to all content on eastwest.eu plus both the digital and the hard copy of the geopolitical magazine
Gain 1 year of unlimited access to only the website and digital magazine
