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Introduction: the TTIP, two years later
Two years after their inception, Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negoti-
ations have reached a critical point on a number
of pending issues that will determine the US-EU
relations and their relative international stand-
ing in areas as diverse as financial power, politi-
cal influence, and social, energy, and environ-
mental policy
vis a vis
the emerging powers.
On February 2013, US President Barack
Obama and European Commission President
José Manuel Barroso announced plans to work
jointly on a US-EU free trade agreement now
known as TTIP and negotiations were initiated
in June of that year. A working draft of the pro-
posal was leaked in March 2014 and later made
public for consultation. Finalization of the
agreement, which was originally expected to
take place by the end of 2014, was rescheduled
for 2015.
Since then, strong political factors
have had a continual impact on the process.
Both the evolution of the two parties’ bargain-
ing positions and the reactions of China, Russia,
and Brazil to the process over the two years
since talks were initiated in 2013 suggest that
the TTIP agreement represents an integral step
in the realignment of American and European
geopolitics—a shift that is occurring at a mo-
ment when the US is enjoying a post-crisis mo-
mentum that Europe has yet to achieve.
The eighth and nine rounds of TTIP negotia-
tions of February (Brussels) and April (Washing-
ton), respectively, during the year 2015, should
mark a critical point in an extended process in
that it will focus on a number of pending issues.
These negotiations are part of a much larger
process of readjustment on the part of the
United States and the European Union to a
shifting geopolitical environment. Yet The offi-
cial discourse of the European Commission has
always maintained that the TTIP agreement
The Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership
Agreement (TTIP): making
a good deal for Europe
Vicente Palacio