Trade agreements — their scope, transparency and legitimacy — must now be re-imagined. Today, at the 17th TACD Annual Forum in Washington DC, we launch our vision for a positive consumer agenda. We provide a series of recommendations, proposing how regulatory cooperation measures outside of trade agreements can improve transatlantic markets for consumers and how, and with what broad objectives, any resumption of trade negotiations should be pursued if they are to be supported by, and to benefit, the public. The paper represents an initial vision statement, and will likely be followed by additional TACD work on particular aspects of agreements and public concerns. To further illustrate the necessity for a change, we highlight in the annex of this paper some common scenarios of challenges faced by transatlantic consumers.We believe trade agreements should be limited to trade matters, that regulatory issues should be dealt with outside of trade agreements, and that both processes should be more transparent and serve the interests of consumers, rather than undermining them.

You can read our vision paper here.