site.bta Bulgarian Politicians Call for Utmost Transparency about EU-US Trade Agreement

Bulgarian Politicians Call for Utmost Transparency about EU-US Trade Agreement

Sofia, November 10 (BTA) - Bulgarian politicians on Monday
called for utmost transparency about the planned EU-US free
trade agreement known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP). The call was issued by MEP Georgi Pirinski
and Deputy Prime Minister Ivailo Kalfin during a discussion on
TTIP organized in Sofia by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Pirinski welcomed the declassification of the negotiating
mandate for TTIP. He noted that the future agreement should
include general measures to regulate financial services, despite
the unwillingness of the US to enforce such measures. Pirinski
said that left-wing politicians acknowledge the need to
liberalize the economy, but this should be done not only to
boost economic growth, but also to promote employment and
increase incomes.

According to Kalfin, TTIP is expected to add 130 billion euro to
the EU's annual GDP and 90 billion euro to that of the US. The
problem is that when two economies are going to be integrated,
they should be equally developed, because otherwise the gap
between them will increase, he said. The national economies in
the EU are at various levels of development and Bulgaria, for
instance, will suffer from increased competition, Kalfin warned.
Not many Bulgarian companies can be successful on the US
market, but many US companies will want to do business in
Bulgaria, he said.

Environmentalist Georg Touparev said the EU is under pressure to
have its education and health care services privatized and to
abolish welfare legislation. Negotiators speculate that if the
EU refuses to sign up to TTIP, the US will turn to negotiate
with China, Touparev said. He argued that good products always
do well on the market, but bad products can be forced onto the
market by politicians.

Regina Schubert of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation said TTIP will
have a huge impact on our lives as it can create the world's
largest free trade area with over 800 million consumers in it.