Ecologic Institute, Bio IS and the Institute for European Environmental Policy were commissioned by the European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI Committee) to provide the members with the needed expertise to monitor the ongoing negotiations between the United States Administration and the European Commission for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement.

The study is a follow-up to a 2013 study on Legal Implications of TTIP for the Acquis Communautaire in ENVI Relevant Sectors.

The stated objective of the TTIP negotiations, launched in July 2013, is to facilitate commercial exchanges of goods and services between both sides of the Atlantic and to enhance investments on each side. This is to be achieved through the removal of trade barriers, which include tariffs and non-tariff measures such as differences in regulations. There are however substantial regulatory differences between the EU and the US. TTIP negotiations therefore raise concerns, notably among members of civil society, that harmonisation that could result from these negotiations may undermine the levels of protection of public health and safety, and the environment.

Against this background, this study compares and highlights the main differences in key EU and US legislation in eight TTIP-relevant areas: medicinal products for human use and medical devices; cosmetics; food and nutrition; sanitary and phyto-sanitary; nanomaterials; cloning; raw materials and energy; and motor vehicles.

The Ecologic Institute contributed, in particular, an overview of EU regulation on cloning, as well as on US regulation on food issues, fracking, fuel quality standards, cloning, and SPS measures.