USCIB Takes Trade Agenda to Europe

Shaun Donnelly talks TTIP at the INSIGNIS business school in Bordeaux, France.
Shaun Donnelly talks TTIP at the INSIGNIS business school in Bordeaux, France.

USCIB Vice President for Investment and Financial Services Shaun Donnelly, a retired U.S. Ambassador and USTR trade negotiator, was invited by the U.S. Embassy in France and IFRI, the leading French think tank on international relations issues, to present a U.S. business perspective on the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) under negotiations for the past 18 months.

At IFRI’s annual Transatlantic conference in Paris last Friday and in sessions in Bordeaux earlier in the week with university students, city leaders and wine exporters, Donnelly laid out USCIB’s strong support for a “comprehensive, ambitions, and high standard” TTIP with the potential to help drive economic growth, jobs and competitiveness in Europe and the United States.

As in many TTIP events at home in the United States, Donnelly spent much of him time debunking myths fomented by activist opponents of TTIP on both sides of the Atlantic.

“Investment protections including Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions, food safety and environmental regulations and intellectual property protections remain some of the most controversial, and most misunderstood, issues among the public in Europe,” Donnelly said. “But we at USCIB want to do our part to help get the perspectives, priorities, and concerns of U.S. business exposed to European audiences.”

Proving we’re willing to go beyond the bright lights of France, Donnelly has accepted a follow-on invitation from the State Department to brave the winter weather and take the U.S. views on TTIP to Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, and Austria in early January.

Staff contact: Shaun Donnelly

More on USCIB’s Trade and Investment Committee

Staff Contact:   Alice Slayton Clark

Senior VP, Trade, Investment, and Digital Policy
Tel: 202.682.0051

Related Content