Rule-Makers or Rule-Takers?: An American Perspective on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Abstract:

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), currently under negotiation by the United States and the European Union is not just another free trade agreement but a means for both parties to move beyond old bilateral disputes to reposition themselves for a world of diffuse power and intensified competition.

Economically, TTIP is an effort to generate jobs and growth on each side of the Atlantic by going beyond traditional at-the-border trade tariffs to tackle regulatory differences in ways that can enhance rather than block growth without lowering standards; and to use transatlantic agreement on such high standards to maintain and lift international standards.

Geopolitically, TTIP can be both a symbolic and practical assertion of Western renewal, vigour and commitment; is an important means to engage rising powers on the terms of their integration into the international order; and is a potentially important instrument to bolster that order.