TTIP and the WTO: chance or threat?

Publikacja recenzowana / Peer-reviewed publicationA crucial factor of ever-growing regionalization of the world trade is the lasting negotiation impasse at multilateral level. Finding common ground among all WTO members has proven to be a task beyond their capabilities, consequently, some countries focused their efforts on concluding Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), which are of a smaller or larger regional range and importance to the global economy. The last group includes the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This partnership will surely affect not only the world trade fl ows but also the progress of negotiations in the ongoing Doha Development Round and in consequence the further functioning of the WTO. It is diffi cult to resist the impression that the TTIP has a different dimension from other, currently formed trading blocs. It mainly concerns the geopolitical context and another case of merging of Western superpowers, which may result in the reluctance of TTIP members to take part in multilateral negotiations for some time, which consequently may negatively affect the ongoing WTO negotiations. The fact that the former superpowers have been overshadowed by the increasingly stronger emerging markets and their lack of political will to conclude the multilateral negotiations do not bode well for the future of the WTO