The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has stirred passions like no other trade negotiation in recent history. Its supporters maintain that TTIP will produce spectacular growth and job creation; claims that are wholeheartedly rejected by its critics, who regard TTIP as a direct assault on workers' rights, health and safety standards and public services.

In this incisive analysis, Gabriel Siles-Brugge and Ferdi de Ville scrutinize the claims made by TTIP's cheerleaders and scaremongers to reveal a far more nuanced picture behind the headlines. TTIP will not provide an economic 'cure-all', nor will it destroy the European welfare state in one fell swoop. Thanks to unprecedented levels of protest and debate around TTIP, however, neoliberal trade negotiations are well and truly back in the spotlight. In this respect, TTIP could well prove to be a 'game-changer' - just not in the way imagined by its backers.

About the Author

Ferdi De Ville is Assistant Professor in Politics at Ghent University

Gabriel Siles-Brugge is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester.

Reviews

"This book provides a reasoned analysis of the TTIP in mid-negotiation, critically examining arguments made by its advocates and its critics, most of whom are in Europe."
Foreign Affairs

"This essential study should be read by anyone who cares about democracy and the sovereignty of parliaments. If you care, you should understand, and there is no better means of understanding than reading this book."
George Monbiot

"De Ville and Siles-Brugge s book is a part of this burgeoning movement for change and a model of what popular explanation of complex economic and political issues should be: Clear, concise, cogent, even handed, and a call to action."
Irish Examiner

"This in-depth, systematic and sober analysis deprived of any polemics brilliantly demystifies the mega-trade deal. It is by far the most advanced piece of political economic thinking on TTIP to date."
Pierre Defraigne, Executive Director, College of Europe Foundation

"The TTIP has been hailed as Europe s growth strategy out of the economic crisis. The critics meanwhile deride it as a job-killing machine that will serve the interests only of US multinationals. This useful and informative book brings the debate down to earth. While underlining the huge uncertainty that exists over likely outcomes, it shows that both sides overstate their case. It concludes that the treaty s main impact will be to reinforce an existing trend whereby trade goals are increasingly narrowing the space for the articulation of domestic rules and regulations."
Dani Rodrik, Harvard University

"This convincingly argued and highly readable book is a much-needed intervention in the heated debate on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the USA. It is a must-read for all those trying to understand what is at stake in this free trade agreement which has sparked such controversy on both sides of the Atlantic."
Brigitte Young, University of Munster

"A balanced and informative account of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and its implications for the economy and society. This book will be a valuable resource for anyone trying to assess the TTIP with open eyes."
Dean Baker, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Book Information
ISBN 9781509501021
Author Ferdi De Ville
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Polity Press
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Weight(grams) 286g
Dimensions(mm) 211mm * 140mm * 13mm