EU-US trade: inflated expectations

The European Commission is set to commence the negotiation of a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the US. The five year hiatus since the stalling of the WTO Doha Round of global trade negotiations, and the political need in a number of EU capitals - and Washington to a lesser extent - for a big strategic gesture has opened up the political space for a big new bilateral trade initiative. However, the grand strategic flavour of the initiative is also at risk of inflating political expectations of what the deal will deliver and how quickly.