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Shifting Patterns of Trade: TTIP and the South Atlantic

On June 17, 2013, the United States and the European Union formally announced the start of negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The ambitious and comprehensive deal seeks to eliminate remaining existing tariffs between the EU and the United States, but also to eliminate non-tariff barriers, and work towards common or mutually recognized standards and regulations. While the original goal of completing the agreement by the end of 2014 is unlikely, late 2015-early 2016 seem to be more realistic timeframes for its completion and beginning of implementation. But TTIP should not only be considered as a purely bilateral instrument. It seeks indeed to set the global standard for future trade and investment relations. The very prospect of TTIP is therefore raising a number of interrogations outside the United States and Europe; it resonates far beyond the transatlantic economic relationship. Countries in the South Atlantic, in particular, are left wondering what the deal would mean for them, and what the direct implications of a greater integration of the North Atlantic economy could be on their own prospect for economic prosperity.