INTRODUCTION

In February 2013, the United States and the European Union leaders declared plans to negotiate a wide-ranging and high-standard free trade agreement (FTA) between the US and the EU. The agreement is referred to as Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

Formal negotiations initiated in July 2013, and thirteen rounds of negotiations have been held to date. If concluded as anticipated, TTIP could be the largest FTA in the world in terms of economic size. TTIP aims to enhance market access through the elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and investment in goods, services, and agriculture. TTIP negotiations are addressing a broad range of areas.

Key to this blog is TTIP’s negotiations surrounding food trade. There are fundamental differences between the US and the EU approach toward evaluating food safety. The EU looks to the Precautionary Principle as its regulatory foundation, essentially a “better safe than sorry” approach. The US employs a “risk assessment” approach linked to cost-benefit analyses when reviewing food safety standards. As a result of these contradictory methodologies, the EU generally has higher food safety standards than the US. However, in some areas the US has advanced standards such as banning ruminant materials in livestock feed that can lead to mad cow disease.

In terms of farming practices in both regions, vast differences exist between the two systems. In particular, are the controversial processes banned in the EU but routine in the US. The differences in practices are based on a different approach to food safety and include the often-cited US practice of washing chicken in chlorine, to the use of growth-promoting hormones in pigs and cattle processes.

There are also huge differences in the treatment of genetically modified crops, with a fundamental ban in the EU and extensive use in the US. The maximum residue levels for pesticides on fruits and vegetables are 500 times higher in the US than in the EU. At the same time, the spread of industrial factory-farming methods is in stark contrast with Europe’s farm to fork approach. 

This blog will track TTIP developments and efforts to harmonize regulations and claims of equivalences in the standards.