This paper examines options for regulatory cooperation in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and assesses the challenges and opportunities posed by regulatory cooperation for consumer protection. It looks at existing approaches to regulatory cooperation by referencing a range of case studies. Based on established practice and on the European Commission’s recently published proposal on regulatory cooperation, we discuss a possible approach that could be adopted in the TTIP. Against the significant potential gains from improved regulatory cooperation, one must set the significant challenges of reconciling the different regulatory philosophies of the US and the EU as well as some differences in their respective approaches to cooperation. In broad terms, this analysis finds that regulatory powers on both sides of the Atlantic will not be significantly affected by the TTIP, but suggests that European and American legislators will need to ensure that their priorities shape the TTIP regulatory cooperation agenda and not the other way around.

Stephen Woolcock is Head of the International Trade Policy Unit, London School of Economics; Barbara Holzer and Petros Kusmu are Research Assistants in the International Trade Policy Unit, London School of Economics. This paper draws on work requested and published by the European Parliament's International Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee: “The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP): Challenges and Opportunities for Consumer Protection”, June (www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=IPOL_IDA%282015%29542222).

This paper is the 11th in a series produced in the context of the “TTIP in the Balance” project, jointly organised by CEPS and the Center for Transatlantic Relations (CTR) in Washington, D.C. It is published simultaneously on the CEPS (www.ceps.eu) and CTR websites (http://transatlantic.sais-jhu.edu).