page_title: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
section_title: Effect on third-party countries
hierarchical_section_title: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership / Effect on third-party countries
context_page_description: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a proposed trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, with the aim of promoting trade and multilateral economic growth. According to Karel de Gucht, European Commissioner for Trade between 2010 and 2014, the TTIP is the largest bilateral trade initiative ever negotiated, not only because it involves the two largest economies in the world but also "because of its potential global reach in setting an example for future partners and agreements".
  Negotiations were halted by President Donald Trump, who then initiated a trade conflict with the EU. Trump and the EU declared a truce of sorts in July 2018, resuming talks that appeared similar to TTIP. On 15 April 2019, the negotiations have been declared "obsolete and no longer relevant" by the European Commission.
  The reports on the ongoing negotiations and the contents of the negotiated TTIP proposals are classified from the public, and can be accessed only by authorised persons. Multiple leaks of proposed TTIP contents into the public caused controversy.
context_section_description: Looking beyond TTIP, a wider "transatlantic free trade area" has been postulated. This might include, on the American side, the other members of North American Free Trade Area (Canada and Mexico); and on the European side, the members of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein). Mexico already has a free trade agreement with EFTA and the EU while Canada has one with EFTA and has negotiated one with the EU. These agreements may need to be harmonized with the EU-US agreement and could potentially form a wider free trade area.
  In early 2013, Canadian media observers had speculated that the launch of TTIP talks put pressure on Canada to secure ratification of its own three-year-long FTA negotiations with the EU by the close of 2013. Countries with customs agreements with the EU, like Turkey's, could face the prospect of opening their markets to American goods, without access for their own goods without a separate agreement with the United States.
caption: A possible future Transatlantic Free Trade Area: 
  the United States and European Union in dark blue and the other possible members in light blue (NAFTA and EFTA)