Transatlantic & Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreements: Negotiation Issues & Congressional Considerations

The U.S.-EU trade and investment relationship, what many call the transatlantic economy, is a mutually beneficial and globally significant relationship. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) is a potential reciprocal free trade agreement (FTA) that the United States and the European Union (EU) are negotiating with each other. The United States and EU seek to enhance market access and trade disciplines by addressing remaining transatlantic barriers to trade and investment in goods, services, and agriculture by negotiating a comprehensive and high-standard T-TIP through reducing and eliminating tariffs between the United States and EU; further opening services and government procurement markets; enhancing cooperation, convergence, and transparency in regulations and standards-setting processes; and strengthening and developing new rules in areas such as intellectual property rights (IPR), investment, digital trade, trade facilitation, labor and the environment, localisation barriers, and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This book provides context for the T-TIP negotiations; analysis of possible trade and investment issues in the negotiations; and discussion of issues for Congress. The U.S.-EU negotiations on T-TIP are not public. The information and analysis in this report on issues in the negotiations are based on publicly available information. See more