In July 2013, negotiations were formally launched on the so-called "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership" (TTIP). This agreement includes a series of measures to "facilitate" trade and investment between the European Union and the United States. This is a historic agreement that given the dimensions involved today (about half of GDP and world trade, measured at real prices, that is excluding inflation, the World Development Indicators (2013).
The TTIP is generating some (significant, we might say) social protest in Europe, even in countries traditionally inclined to trade liberalisation such as Germany. In addition, the vote a few days ago seeking to advance their negotiations in the European Parliament seemed that it would not get a sufficient majority for approval and was delayed. These clues that tell us that some understood that "facilitating" trade is subjecting local businesses to excessive competition, such as giving too much power to foreign multinationals. Or the fear that reducing non-tariff trade barriers pose a health hazard, for example when it comes to labelling requirements for food, or genetic treatment of agricultural products (permitted in the US but banned in Europe).
For others, TTIP implies that producers of shoes in Alicante stop paying 35% of the price in the form of tariffs or that of Murcian artichokes are no longer displaced by those from Latin America who do not pay any fee under the Free trade agreement with the US (as recently cited by the European Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström). They would also see the TTIP as an opportunity to eliminate those bureaucratic barriers that are "bad" because they make companies exporting to the rest of Europe have to meet certain requirements towards laudable car safety, while in the US, while ensuring the same safety requirements, simply are not the same. This represents a cost to business, especially burdensome for the smaller ones, which they find to be an unnecessary barrier to exports. Hindering exports may suffocate a source of growth and job creation by blocking access to new markets, while preventing imports and depriving consumers of lower prices through greater competition. Nevertheless, let us see briefly what measures are being considered with the TTIP.
