The TTIP and Its Potential Effects over the Labor Force in the European Union

Abstract

The traditional relation between the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA) emerged in 2013 under the form of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. After numerous rounds of talks, and taking into consideration the current political developments that characterize both of the powers involved, it appears that the process of reaching an agreement has unofficially stopped. Aiming towards a total liberalization of the transatlantic trade, the potential effects of the completely negotiated TTIP would affect the labor force on both sides of the Atlantic, both from the legal and administrative point of view. This situation could be developed in accordance to each of the 28 Member States current trade and investment situation with the USA, while for the other partner, the number of jobs created as a result of TTIP will reflect the individual trade situation of each of the 50 federal states with the European Union. If fully negotiated, ratified and implemented, TTIP is susceptible of creating over two million jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, the winners of the process comprising both the large and small economies that will encourage the export activities of the small and medium sized entreprizes. With an ongoing Brexit process, followed by the political instability from the EU territory, and adding the instability of the decisional process of the USA Administration, the negotiation of TTIP appears, at least for the following four years, as an impossible task to achieve.