Realising TTIP’s Strategic Potential

The strategic case for TTIP is greater – and the stakes higher – now that the United Kingdom decided in June 2016 to leave the EU. But TTIP will create new risks for the West whether it succeeds or fails.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – currently being negotiated between the United States and the European Union – represents a bolder and riskier approach to liberalising trade than traditional trade deals. It is bolder because it aims to cover a wide range of policy issues that are not typically included, and because it aims to be strategic and extraterritorial in its impact. It is riskier because of the difficulty in getting agreement on these issues between the parties concerned, and because the responses of other countries are uncertain.

A risk for TTIP is failure. If negotiations break down or a deal is reached that falls short of the ambition set for it, this would send a damaging signal to the rest of the world about the inability of the EU and the United States to work together. The damage would be all the greater if the process was acrimonious, or if it exposed US indifference to Europe or latent anti-Americanism in the EU. The United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU raises the stakes, particularly for the latter, as it is a blow to the international credibility of the EU. Agreeing TTIP would help to offset this blow, while failure would amplify it.

• Primary Source

ESO: Key Source: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) http://www.europeansources.info/record/transatlantic-trade-and-investment-partnership-ttip/

ESO: Background information: TTIP is no reason to leave the EU http://www.europeansources.info/record/ttip-is-no-reason-to-leave-the-eu/

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