EU-US trade negotiators explore ways to help SMEs take advantage of TTIP

The EU’s Chief Negotiator of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Ignacio Garcia Bercero, has confirmed that he and his US counterpart, Dan Mullaney, are committed to exploring how to make it easier for smaller firms to take advantage of the gains from the TTIP.

His comments came as EU and US officials ended a fourth round of negotiations on an EU-US trade and investment agreement.

Garcia Bercero commented that a chapter targeting SMEs would be “a first for the European Union”. He said: “It shows just how seriously we’re taking the issue. Smaller firms employ the vast majority of people in both the EU and the US. They account for two out of every three private sector jobs in the EU. They’re the backbone of our economies, accounting for 99% of all businesses in the EU. TTIP would help them expand – generating jobs and growth on both sides of the Atlantic.”

The EU and US also published a document focusing on how smaller firms could benefit from the agreement and how the two sides plan to help those firms do so.

This fourth round of talks comes just a few weeks after EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht met his US counterpart, ambassador Mike Froman, to review progress on the negotiations. In addition to SMEs, EU and US negotiating teams spent the week discussing all three pillars of a future agreement: market access, the regulatory cluster, and so-called ‘rules’ issues.