DIGITALEUROPE assessment of TPP provisions - Our recommendations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)  

KEY MESSAGES

On 15 October 2015, the Ministers of the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership countries announced the conclusion of the TPP. DIGITALEUROPE congratulates the parties for finalising this strong partnership which includes for the first time horizontal and comprehensive disciplines related to the Internet and digital services and products – critical cross-cutting elements fit for the 21st century trade agreements we strongly wish to see included in a similar fashion also in the bilateral and multilateral trade agreements the European Union will enter into the near future.

Therefore, DIGITALEUROPE urges the European Institutions to seize this momentum for the global digital economy by implementing such key offensive digital trade principles in the TTIP and the TiSA in accordance with the Commission’s new « Trade for all » Strategy which identifies them as a priority. Only a comprehensive and proactive approach to digital trade disciplines in implementing the new trade strategy will establish the European Union again as a frontrunner again in International trade policy and ensure competitive market access for European ICT companies. The priority issues for DIGITALEUROPE are free cross-border flow of data, prohibition on government forced (data) localisation, elimination of tariffs for ICT products and removal of nontariff barriers in the ICT sector.

Below we would like to present to the European Commission, European Parliament and Member States our initial assessment of the TPP chapters that are of interest for the digital economy, including the scalability of the Digital Single Market on a global stage, and our key recommendations for the EU’s trade agreements currently being negotiated and initiated, in particular for the TTIP and TiSA, negotiations.