I don't have a link or an exact quote, but I was watching the confirmation hearing for USTR nominee Mike Froman, and Sen. Sherrod Brown (a trade critic) asked something along these lines: Given that EU property rights protection is pretty good, do we need investor-state in the TTIP? Mr. Froman's answer was basically, we're still consulting on this and haven't made a decision. Brown followed up with more on this, trying to prod Froman a bit on why investor-state was needed in this context, and Froman then said something like, we need to be aware of what excluding investor-state in this agreement would mean for the system as a whole.
I have no further comments on this right now -- just interesting to watch this unfold.
ADDED: I think you can view the exchange here starting at 1:27:08 if you click "watch now".
