On July 12, 2013, the European Commission (EU) issued a press release announcing that the first round of negotiations for the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was concluded in Washington, D.C. last week. This partnership is intended to boost trade and increase growth and employment in both regions.
In the release, the EU Commission explains that "the negotiating groups have set out respective approaches and ambitions in as much as twenty various areas that the TTIP - the biggest bilateral trade and investment negotiation ever undertaken - is set to cover."
Some of the areas to be covered by the TTIP include:
- Market access for agricultural and industrial goods
- Energy and raw materials
- Regulatory issues
- Intellectual property rights
- Customs/trade facilitation
The EU-US TTIP was first announced during the G8 Summit on June 17, 2013. The second round of negotiations will take place in Brussels the week of October 7 of this year.
The full text of the press release is available online here.
