Global Business and Economics Program Associate Director Garrett Workman writes for US News and World Report on the latest round of TTIP negotiations:
2014 should be a transformational year for the transatlantic partnership. The United States and the European Union continue to slog through an underwhelming economic recovery, while conflicts from Ukraine to Iraq to North Africa have forced themselves onto to-do lists in Washington and Brussels. Much like in 1945 or 1989, the decisions made today by President Barack Obama and European leaders will have ramifications that reach far beyond the shores of the North Atlantic.
NATO commanders and strategists conferred recently in Britain to discuss ways to reestablish peace in the face of these threats. This week, European and American negotiators are meeting in Washington on a very different issue: How to jumpstart economic growth and create high-quality jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. Understanding that economic prosperity and international security are inextricably linked, the world’s two largest economic powers – the United States and the EU – are working to establish the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership to set a global gold standard of free trade and regulatory cooperation. Clearly, the trade partnership is not just about economics; as geopolitical tensions across the world worsen, it is vital to show a united transatlantic front bridging security, politics and commerce.