I'm always hearing about how the TTIP is finally going to address those regulatory trade barriers we have been ignoring all these years. In general, I'm a bit skeptical: Regulatory trade barriers have been on the agenda of trade negotiations since at least the late 1920s. And when people offer up specific examples, I have further doubts. Here is the Economist:
LIFE for modern Europeans is marked by endless hardships, not least their inability to buy Hog Island oysters. Farmed in a bay north of San Francisco, these plump, succulent specimens rival anything in Normandy or the Languedoc. Yet there is no transatlantic trade in oysters to speak of. Why? Because of incompatible safety regimes: America tests oyster waters for bacteria while the European Union examines the molluscs themselves. Both methods are sound, but neither side recognises the other’s.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), an ambitious planned trade deal between America and the EU, is intended to iron out such wrinkles. Unlike classic free-trade arrangements, TTIP focuses on regulatory and other non-tariff barriers, because levies on most products traded across the Atlantic are already close to zero (exceptions include running shoes and fancy chocolate). ...
I'm not familiar with the background of this example, so maybe there is more than meets the eye, but isn't this a likely SPS Agreement violation (on both sides)? What will the TTIP do with this issue that the WTO can't do already?
One answer is that the TTIP could offer expanded recognition of other's standards, which I think would be great. I'm not sure how promising that looks right now, but I hope the negotiatiors keep trying.
But when it comes to basic rules designed to root out "unjustified" (in some sense) trade restrictions, it seems like people are forgetting the rules we already have at the WTO.
