The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is mainly aimed to remove the remaining trade barriers between the European Union and the United States of America. High tariffs are concentrated in sectors that are important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), like food, textiles and ceramics. Moreover, SMEs feel many trade barriers more than large companies because they have to spread fixed costs like product approvals over smaller sales.
The negotiators of the partnership were agreed to set up a dedicated chapter to the SMEs as announced by Cecilia Malmström, the EU Commissier for Trade the 12th March 2015.
The TTIP should mandate more EU-US joint government outreach for the SME community.
A SME Committee should be set up to make sure that governments do not stop to keep in mind SMEs after TTIP is in place.
Finally, governements should deliver clear information to SMEs about all the rules and regulations that apply to their product. The EU wants this to be done via a comprehensive website.
Cecilia Malmstrôm’s full speech on the European Commission website