The purpose of the negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is to reduce barriers to trade and investment in order to generate jobs and growth. According to assessments made by the EU Commission and other European bodies, a comprehensive TTIP could over time boost EU GDP by 0.5% per annum bringing significant economic gains as a whole for the EU. This injection of economic activity will bring new job opportunities. Based on EU Commission estimates, about 30 million jobs in the EU depend on sales to the rest of the world, and on average, each additional €1 billion of exports supports 15,000 additional jobs across the EU. That suggests that across the EU, an ambitious TTIP could generate 400,000 jobs.
The results of the study commissioned by my Department suggest that TTIP will be good for Ireland. It estimates that the benefits in Ireland will be proportionally greater than in the EU as a whole. It suggests growth in Irish exports of almost 4%, increases in investment of 1% and increase in real wages of 1.5%. It estimates somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 additional export related jobs. It also suggests that Irish small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will be particular beneficiaries.
In relation to ISDS, the EU Commission has been working over the last few months on a number of areas by way of follow-up to its public consultation on ISDS. These are: the protection of the right to regulate; the establishment and functioning of arbitral tribunals; the relationship between domestic judicial systems and Investor to State Dispute Settlement (ISDS); and the review of ISDS decisions for legal correctness through an appellate mechanism.
Last week, the EU Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, presented a concept paper to the EU Council of Ministers and to the EU Parliament’s International Trade Committee. The paper sets out ideas for reforming the current ISDS system, with the overall aim of creating a new modern system of investment arbitration. The ideas include strengthening governments' right to regulate, making arbitral tribunals operate more like traditional court systems with a clear code of conduct for arbitrators, and guaranteeing access to an appeals system. The paper can be found at:
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/may/tradoc_153408.PDF
I welcome the comprehensive work by the EU Commission in following up on the views expressed by stakeholders, and the ideas it has set out in the concept paper, which I will be carefully considering.
