Czech Business Today
Transatlantic Relations Discussed in Prague
At the beginning of November, Prague hosted international conference on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US. The event brought together stakeholders representing the Government of the Czech Republic, the European Parliament, European and Czech business organizations, trade unions and civil society.
Furthermore, Ignacio Garcia Bercero, EU Chief Negotiator of TTIP, took part in the discussion. The position of Czech government is supportive to TTIP as it would liberalize trade and increase EU exports, which is important for small and open economy of the Czech Republic. Although the agreement wouldn’t have a major impact on Czech economy, the US is an important market for many Czech companies producing high value added products. Many companies, especially SMEs, would benefit from the overall exports increase of EU to the US through subcontractor supply chain. Czech government is aware of the controversies related to the negotiations, being it the ongoing debate on lowering EU standards or the more recent one on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). The government is well aware of the need for transparency vis-à-vis general public.
Therefore, the Ministry of Trade set up a TTIP dedicated webpage where questions can be asked directly to the Ministry. Czech government would like TTIP negotiations to be concluded by the end of 2015 or early 2016, given that all the necessary provisions such as ISDS, regulatory issues or open access to public procurement are well negotiated and included in the final text.
