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In 2013, the world's two biggest economies, namely the EU ($18.5 trillion) and the U.S. ($17.3 trillion), commenced negotiations on a free trade agreement aimed at reducing mutual barriers to trade, mainly in three areas: market access, trade regulation and broader rules of cooperation.1 According to research conducted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), arriving at the ambitious level of convergence would result in 0.5% and 0.4% GDP growth, respectively, for the EU and the U.S. The European Commission, which is the party negotiating the deal on behalf of all Member States, argues that the agreement is a remedy for the EU's sluggish recovery from the economic crisis and a strategy to counter rising competition from China and other BRIC countries. However, despite the promising predictions, the process of negotiations has proved anything but smooth, spurring unprecedented opposition from the public, with over 3 million Europeans signing the "Stop TTIP" petition2 and hundreds of thousands marching the streets of Berlin on October 2015 to protest the deal.3
The predominant argument forwarded by the opponents of TTIP is that the main beneficiaries of the agreement will be large multinationals, which will reap larger profits by having to comply with lower standards and exerting pressure on governments through the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism. The European Commission rebuts the argument about less stringent standards and promises to uphold all safety and environmental rules that citizens of the EU hold dear. Moreover, Cecilia Malmström, EU Trade Commissioner and the main architect of the deal, has recently put forward an idea to replace the highly controversial ISDS mechanism with an Investment Court System, designed to be a more transparent and predictable process for resolving conflicts between states and investors. The EC has also decided to focus on another line of argument, which is that TTIP will be designed to invigorate the backbone of the European Union's economy- Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).
The role of SMEs in Member State economies cannot be overlooked. It is estimated that as many as 99% of the EU's enterprises are micro, small or medium-sized firms.4 Although responsible for only one-third of the European Union's GDP, SMEs are the EU's biggest employers, providing jobs for over 88.8 billion people (66.8%...