Talking about TTIP and environment at the French Parliament

What can be expected from the sustainability chapter in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – with a focus on environment – was the topic of a panel discussion at the French Parliament on 4 May. Our key messages: (a) TTIP main objective is to open new business opportunities for EU companies, especially SMEs; (b) the sustainability chapter proposed by the EU in TTIP is well more advanced and detailed than in any other of our trade agreements; (c) the main goal should be to have high-level rules in TTIP that can be later promoted at multilateral level as this area is currently not addressed by the WTO; (d) there are limits to what a trade agreement can achieve in implementing multilateral environmental agreements like COP21.