“It is primarily IT companies that are in favour of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement between the EU and the United States; environmental protection groups and human rights activists are against the treaty”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Minister of State for Security Policy and International Cooperation István Mikola said at a press conference in Budapest on Thursday.

Mr. Mikola stressed that the Ministry had so far held discussions on the TTIP with more than eighty professional organisations, trade unions and enterprises and the results of these negotiations would be taken into account during decision-making.

“The Hungarian Government will be representing Hungarian interests at the negotiating table, however”, he highlighted.

Hungary is an open, export-driven economy that has an interest in the conclusion of free trade agreements, he stressed.

However, it is expected to be years before the TTIP can be successfully concluded, because the two parties currently have very different approached to the proposed treaty, he said, adding “if a deal is successfully struck at all”.

Concerning the importance of the agreement, Mr. Mikola explained that together, the 800 million inhabitants of the EU and the United States generate 44 percent of the world’s GDP and are responsible for some 35 percent of global trade.

The Minister of State said he thought it was perfectly understandable that non-governmental organisations expect the negotiations to be held in a transparent manner, something which the U.S. is currently obstructing.

At the negotiating table, Hungary is representing interests such as the protection of products with country of origin labelling, in addition to which Hungary believes there is no place for chosen jurisdictions in disputes between investors and the countries they invest in; national court organisations are well-suited to such tasks.

Hungary has found several partners with similar views on protecting national interests, such as the Visegrád Group, the Baltic States and France, the Minister of State said.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)