Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership

First Phase – Local, Specific, Tangible

In 2013, EU and US governments launched negotiations for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement. TTIP is the largest bilateral trade and investment agreement ever negotiated. Never have trade negotiations received a higher level of public attention. While there is a need to address concerns related to, for example, the level of consumer protection and transparency, the success of the negotiations will also largely depend on the illustration of the benefits that TTIP can bring to businesses, workers and local economies.

Our aim is to highlight to companies across the country how they can benefit from TTIP. In 2013, together with many partners, we embarked on a national road show series to explore how business people and their companies, in particular small and medium-sized companies, across the UK can benefit from TTIP.

Over the course of 18 months, 580 participants from more than 300 companies and organisations joined us at 15 events in 12 different cities, from Bristol to Newcastle, from Glasgow to Birmingham, across the country.

We have been able to test some of the high level policy rhetoric surrounding TTIP and find out what’s really happening at the grass roots. We learned that there are a lot of success stories out there when it comes to trade with the US. But there could be more. SMEs especially have much to gain from TTIP as it will address many of the barriers they face, and their experiences make a case for why business and local economies stand to benefit from a trade agreement. For a summary of the first event series and case studies, please find a link to our report ‘Local, Specific, Tangible’ below.

Second Phase – Open for Business

If TTIP can help a smaller company to export and to growth its business by reducing regulatory obstacles and market access barriers, the benefits to entire industry are likely to be significant with an impact for thousands of UK-based businesses and their employees.

In 2015, BAB organises a series of events across the UK focusing on four sectoral workshops including – Food & Drink, Automotive, Life Sciences and Chemicals. This series will take the exploration of TTIP benefit to the next level. We will showcase the importance of sectors to the UK economy and the importance of UK-US trade and investment to UK sectors. We will explore the barriers companies are facing when trading across the Atlantic, particularly smaller companies in supply chains; and we will examine the potential benefits that TTIP could bring to UK sectors, in particular in regards to the scope and sector-specific content of TTIP.

This initiative aims to build a nation-wide sector case for TTIP and trade that will contribute to the debate in the UK and set an example for other EU Member States. The series is organised in collaboration with the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), and the US Embassy and kindly supported by UPS and BT as series sponsors.

Please click on event links below to access invitations and press material. Join us in the debate @ #Op4biz and have a look at our Storify stories of Chemicals, Food & Drink, Life Sciences & Automotive.

For more information, please contact: Emanuel Adam, Head of Policy & Trade, eadam@babinc.org.