Czech ministry seeks to highlight domestic benefits of TTIP deal
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is headline news at the moment with US president Barack Obama in Germany to give the proposed EU-US deal his backing as thousands of Germans marched against it over the weekend. The Czech government has made its contribution to the debate – releasing a study on Monday which highlights the benefits a deal could bring to the domestic economy.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP for short, is described as the world’s most ambitious trade and investment deal. It seeks to bring down many of the existing customs duties between the EU and US. More importantly though it aims to tackle a lot of the red tape and regulations that hamper today’s two-way business.
The talks, often shrouded in secrecy, are also highly controversial with opponents saying they would act as a US Trojan horse, eroding European environmental, food, workplace and other rights to bring them in line with the more free for all US way of doing things.
That’s an interpretation that is challenged by the Czech government, a staunch supporter of the proposed trade deal. And on Monday Prague sought to emphasize what it sees at the positive aspects of the agreement.
Vladimír Bärtl is the deputy minister at the Ministry of Industry and Trade who is mostly closely involved with the evolving trade talks. He described the most favourable of four scenarios for the Czech Republic which were outlined by the independent study.
Those sort of benefits could translate into an around 1.0 percent increase in real wages as well. While Czech exports to the US are relatively low for such a large economy, the study highlights the fact that a lot of US demand is for specialized and high value items where there are high potential margins for Czech companies.
Of course, these estimates are very hazardous when the final agreement is still a work in process and remains to be completed with a lot of the hardest and most tricky issues still dividing negotiators being saved till last.
EU and US negotiators were set to go head to head on Monday and for the following four days in the 13th round of discussions so far on the ambitious trade deal. Both Europe and the US are expected to make a push for most of the key chapters of TTIP to be closed by the end of the year. There are worries that the deal could lose its impetus if it is not substantially completed before a new US president arrives in office at the start of next year.
