The Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA) or
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a
proposed
free trade area between the
United States and the
European Union. It was considered in the 1990s and again in 2007. In
2013, "United States-European Union High Level Working Group on Jobs and
Growth" recommended the start of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership.[1]
In case of an agreement until 2015, the
European Commission expects 400,000 new jobs and on average a
financial relief of 545 Euro for each household every year;[2]
however, others dispute these claims and criticise the treaty's secret
negotiations and copyright clauses.[3]
Background
Economic barriers between the EU/EFTA and the US/NAFTA are relatively
low and some efforts to ease trade have been made, such as the single
sky aviation agreement (EU-US
Open Skies Agreement) and the establishment of the
Transatlantic Economic Council. Nonetheless, the
European Commission estimates that passage of a trans-Atlantic trade
pact could boost overall trade between the respective blocs by as much
as 50%.[4]
However, economic relations are tense and there are frequent trade
disputes between the two economies, many of which end up before the
World Trade Organization (see
EU-US relations). Economic gains of TAFTA were predicted in the
joint report issued by the
White House and the
European Commission.[5]
Status
In his
State of the Union address of February 13, 2013, US President
Obama announced he would submit a request to start formal
negotiations on TAFTA.[6]
The same day,
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, and
European Commission President José Manuel Barroso initiated
negotiations.
EU trade ministers on April 18, 2013 set a deadline of the end of
June 2013 to reach an accord on the mandate to start negotiating a
transatlantic trade and investment partnership.[7]
Criticism with respect to secret negotiations and copyright clauses
In March 2013, a coalition of
digital rights organisations and anti-HIV/AIDS
groups issued a declaration[8]
in which they called on the negotiating partners to have TAFTA "debated
in the
US Congress, the
European Parliament, national parliaments, and other transparent
forums" instead of conducting "closed negotiations that give privileged
access to corporate insiders", and to leave
intellectual property out of the agreement. Given this lack of
transparency, “it’s quite remarkable that in the United States there is
no organised political opposition to TTIP”,[9]
argued the Director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at
Johns Hopkins University. The
Electronic Frontier Foundation and its German counterpart
FFII, in particular, compared TAFTA to the
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA),[10][11]
signed by the United States, the European Union and 22 of its 27 member
states, the
ratification of which has halted in many signatory countries in
response to public outcry.[12]
Effects on
third countries
Canadian media observers have speculated that the launch of US-EU
talks puts pressure on Canada to conclude its own three-year long FTA
negotiations with the EU by the close of 2013.[13]
See also
External links
References