Czech Business Today

On the 2nd of May, Greenpeace Netherlands released leaked documents from Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations between the EU and US. According to Greenpeace, the documents prove that TTIP will jeopardize European citizens by transferring power from people to big businesses, lowering European standards related to environment and food safety and will make it harder to implement climate actions by the EU. However, Czech business organizations believe that this is not the case.

As the Europeans Commission continues to underline, the final deal won’t do anything like that. The aim is to lower or remove current tariffs, improve recognition of certifications and technical standards and improve access to procurements on both sides of the Atlantic. The released documents do not show the final text of TTIP, but only internal negotiating positions. By making them public, interests of the negotiators are harmed as it significantly lowers space for manoeuvre in the mature stage of negotiations. The misconception might arise from different approaches to regulation. While the EU uses the so-called precautionary principle, under which products that could be harmful are banned, the US applies a less strict principle that intends to manage possible risks. However, TTIP doesn’t change the way regulation is made on either side and regulatory principles will be preserved.

In addition to that, the final version of the deal has to be ratified by EU member states and the European Parliament and therefore it is highly unlikeable that the Commission would present to them a text that would lower the mentioned standards in any way.