The Institute of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung held an international conference on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on Thursday.

Director General of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and Trade Márton Schőberl and Head of the Hungarian Representation of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Frank Spengler opened the international conference. Following this, István Mikola held a presentation. The Minister of State for Security Policy and International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade emphasised that the main goal of the TTIP agreement is improving the market access of goods, services and public procurement and reducing the regulatory barriers to trade and investments, as well as strengthening the regulatory cooperation of the parties and coherence between the regulations.

The Minister of State also emphasised that the United States and the EU are negotiating partners of equal political weight. Talking about Hungarian interests, István Mikola explained that Hungary had an open-minded and supportive attitude to the negotiations from the beginning, aiming to reach a balanced agreement.

Designate leader of the European Commission's Unit for Information, Communication and Civil Society Lutz Güllner, Minister of State for EU Affairs of the Prime Minister’s Office Szabolcs Takács, Head of the Department for International Economic Order and Economic Outlook of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research Jürgen Matthes, and Senior Trade Representative of the U.S. Mission to the EU in Brussels Elena Bryan participated in the round-table discussion following the presentation.

The participants hoped that the negotiation process may come to an end by the beginning of 2016. However, the speakers emphasised that the content of the agreement is more important than reaching an agreement quickly since it is in the interest of both parties to draft a regulation that can be enforced in practice.

The speakers pointed out that Europe’s large export sectors (for example the automotive industry or the chemicals industry) can benefit the most from the TTIP. The agreement could also bring about advantages for small and medium-sized enterprises: on the one hand, their access to the market becomes easier with the approximation of the standards; on the other hand, they could benefit from the increase in turnover as members of international distribution chains.

The TTIP is about removing both customs and non-tariff barriers. The reduction of customs duties is an important issue since even lower tariffs represent a significant burden due to the large foreign trade turnover between the EU and the United States. The speakers emphasised that the parties “compete with each other to improve rather than to decrease” the quality of the regulations. The TTIP can contribute to the security of supply of cheap and sustainable energy at the same time. According to the speakers, the agreement could improve the EU’s global competitiveness and the question for Hungary is to what extent it is able to contribute to this goal.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)