Rule-Makers Or Rule Takers

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is an effort by the United States and the European Union to reposition themselves for a world of diffuse economic power and intensified global competition. It is a next-generation economic negotiation that breaks the mould of traditional trade agreements. At the heart of the ongoing talks is the question whether and in which areas the two major democratic actors in the global economy can address costly frictions generated by their deep commercial integration by aligning rules and other instruments. The aim is to reduce duplication in various ways in areas where levels of regulatory protection are equivalent as well as to foster wide-ranging regulatory cooperation and set a benchmark for high-quality global norms.
In this volume, European and American experts explain the economic context of TTIP and its geopolitical implications, and then explore the challenges and consequences of US-EU negotiations across numerous sensitive areas, ranging from food safety and public procurement to economic and regulatory assessments of technical barriers to trade, automotive, chemicals, energy, services, investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms and regulatory cooperation. Their insights cut through the confusion and tremendous public controversies now swirling around TTIP, and help decision-makers understand how the United States and the European Union can remain rule-makers rather than rule-takers in a globalising world in which their relative influence is waning.

Jacques Pelkmans is Senior Research Fellow at CEPS in Brussels and Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. He has held professorships at the European University Institute in Florence and at Maastricht University, as well as at the European Institute of Public Administration, and has served as advisor or consultant to a range of international organisations. He specialises in European economic integration, trade policy, technical standards and the ASEAN Economic Community.

Daniel S. Hamilton is Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Professor and Executive Director at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University.