The Politics Of Transatlantic Trade Negotiations: TTIP in a Globalized World.

• Author: Hoadley, Stephen

THE POLITICS OF TRANSATLANTIC TRADE NEGOTIATIONS: TTIP in a Globalized World

Editors: Jean-Frederick Morin, Tereza Novotna, Frederik Ponjaert and Maria Telo

Published by: Ashgate, Farnham, Surrey, England, 2015, 227pp, 75[pounds sterling] (hb), 25 [pounds sterling] (pb).

With the Trans-Pacific Partnership signed (although far from ratified or in effect), the attention of trade officials and analysts is turning to the next 'mega-PTA' (large scale preferential trade agreement): the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Abbreviated TTIP, this negotiation between the European Union and the United States began quietly in July 2013 with leaders' ambitious statements of intent, and was then delegated to officials to conduct feasibility studies, clarify positions, and assess offers. As at November 2015 they appear to be in a pause mode for several reasons, among them European preoccupation with the Greece and Euro crises, Britain's possible exit, the rise of Eurosceptic parties and not least the wish of officials to study the lessons from the TPP before moving forward.

But moving forward is problematic, according to this academic survey, the first published book-length evaluation of the TTIP's attractions, political obstacles and plausible consequences. Not only are unprecedented standards and scales of trade liberalisation on the table but also questions about the geo-political unity of 'the West' and the fragility of the European Union have emerged.

For free-traders the benefits are familiar: elimination of tariffs and quotas, lower compliance costs for traders and investors, dismantling of behind-the-border barriers, extension of national treatment to all participants, protection of real and intellectual property and wider consumer choice.

The costs are also familiar: the undermining of long-held EU protections of uncompetitive producers, workers and farmers, and threats to cherished national priorities and cultural icons.

The contributors also point out less visible costs, such as the erosion of member states' influence over the European Commission bureaucrats, into whose hands the authority to negotiate with the United States will inevitably pass. Third World countries, principally former colonies of Britain and France, now enjoying privileges in the European Union may find themselves marginalised. From China's and Russia's points of view the coalescing of the world's two biggest economies may appear to be a foreshadowing of 'the...