Czech Business Can Benefit Both From CETA and TTIP Agreement

Both the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), that are currently the two main topics of EU foreign trade policy, aim at removing trade barriers in a wide range of sectors to make the trade flows between the EU and the North America even more intensive. Successful conclusions of these two agreements will not only bring significant economic benefits, but will also strengthen political relations between both sides of the Atlantic.

If we talk numbers, trade between the Czech Republic, the USA and Canada, both in goods and services, rises. The increase in trade in goods with the USA was by 20 % last year and the trade in services with Canada grew even by 25 %. Czech business community welcomed the launch of both agreements. Their greatest benefits consist of better access to public procurement, improved investment environment and equal treatment. In the field of standards, companies prefer mutual recognition rather than full harmonization, which is very difficult to achieve.

It is necessary to ensure that both parties of the agreement begin to recognize safety standards, which would help European companies to save resources when entering the US market. The agreements were discussed at CEBRE event held on October 9, 2013 during the International Engineering Fair in Brno.