Is Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership a Regional Contribution to Global Economic Governance?

The negotiation of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has been followed to an unprecedented extent by civil society. One of the issues underlying the debate is whether TTIP would contribute positively to global economic governance. This contribution is a limited attempt to address this issue from two different perspectives. First, it tries to reply to the question of how TTIP would relate to the World Trade Organization (WTO), a major form of global economic governance; whether it would be legally consistent with the WTO and whether, where it deals with areas potentially within the scope of the WTO, it blocks any action at WTO level in these areas. Second, this contribution addresses the question whether TTIP would contribute in other areas beyond the scope of the WTO, to global economic governance; it examines a few such selected areas.