Implications of the Proposed EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership for EU-Sub-Sahara Africa Relations

Babarinde, Olufemi (2015) Implications of the Proposed EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership for EU-Sub-Sahara Africa Relations. [Conference Proceedings] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Introduction: The day after his February 12, 2013 State of the Union address during which he advised members of the U.S. Congress and the American people of his administration’s plan to initiate talks on a comprehensive transatlantic economic relationship with the European Union (EU), President Barack Obama, along with his EU counterparts—the European Council’s President Herman Van Rompuy and the European Commission’s President Jose Manuel Barroso—jointly announced their intention to launch negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Already the world’s two largest economies with regard to their share of global economic output, trade, and foreign direct investment, a new agreement between the EU and U.S. would not only rekindle and augment their age-old bilateral relationship, but would also make it an even stronger economic driver of their prosperity.2 It would also give a much-needed shot-in-the arm to sluggish economic results on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly in the wake of the global financial meltdown that began in earnest in 2007 and the prolonged fiscal crisis that continues to date to afflict the Eurozone. The agreement, both parties believe, would also strengthen the multilateral trading system and, consequently, boost global economic growth and jobs via intensified trade and investment.

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