Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - Trade - European Commission
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During the first round of the trade and investment talks, the so-called TTIP, which took place in Washington, D.C. between 8 and 12 July 2013, negotiating groups have set out respective approaches and ambitions in as much as twenty various areas that the TTIP is set to cover. The negotiators also met with 350 stakeholders to listen to formal presentations and answer questions. The second round of negotiations will take place in October 2013, in Brussels.
On 14 June, the Member States gave the European Commission the green light to start the talks with the United States.
The Commission negotiates on behalf of the EU and will keep its Member States and the European Parliament regularly informed and updated. The EU is committed to providing as much information as possible for the public, the media, and the many stakeholders as we move through the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiation. For example, we have taken the unprecedented step of making available to the public a number of the EU's initial position papers on various aspects of the negotiations and made available the list of the lead negotiators for all the areas covered by the process.
EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
- Past and future events:
The EU-US trade relationship is already the biggest in the world – every day we trade goods and services worth €2 billion.
This agreement, the biggest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated, could result in millions of euros of savings to companies and create hundreds of thousands of jobs. It is expected that every year an average European household would gain an extra €545 and our economy would be boosted by around 0.5% of GDP, once the deal was fully implemented.
What will this agreement be about?
The agreement would benefit both the EU's economy and its citizens. EU companies are expected to be able to sell an additional €187 billion worth of goods and services a year to the US – this is good news for jobs.
On top of cutting tariffs, our main focus in these negotiations will be to tackle those barriers that lie behind the customs border – such as differences in technical regulations, standards and certification. These often cost time and money for companies (for example: when a car is approved as safe in the EU, it currently has to undergo a new safety check in the US).
This is where we could make real savings for our businesses and ultimately for consumers. 80% of the benefits of an agreement would result from reducing this regulatory burden and bureaucracy, as well as from opening up services and public procurement markets.
More jobs and growth
The decision to launch negotiations followed the recommendations of a joint EU-US Working Group on jobs and growth. The Working Group found that in order to boost transatlantic trade and investment, the EU and the US would need to be creative, flexible, and open-minded in developing and negotiating solutions that respond to the specific characteristics of transatlantic economic relations. Together, the EU and the US have invested more than €2.8 trillion in each other's economy.