Christoph Kerres, founding partner of Kerres | Partners Attorneys at Law, and the Austrian Federal Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (BMLFUW), Andrä Rupprechter, gave presentations on the topic "TTIP - Major changes in the conclusion of a trade agreement between Europe and the USA" within the event framework of "Dialog am Schubertring" on October 3, 2016.

After introductory words by Stefan Gurmann, partner at Kerres I Partners, Christoph Kerres reported within the main topic “Arbitration clause in TTIP - Arbitration courts in conflict with law sovereignty of Member States” on the current status of the TTIP negotiations in general and in particular on the advantages and disadvantages of the various proposed mechanisms for dispute settlement in this context and further presented interesting individual cases which are now part of the extensive negotiations. Agriculture Minister Andrä Rupprechter focused on the effects of the trade agreements TTIP and CETA on agriculture and agricultural markets in Austria and the EU.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and its negotiation is a politically up-to-date topic. The EU and the US negotiate this partnership in a time-consuming manner, with the main controversy points being the security of food and plants exported from the USA, the access to European public procurement in the US and, last but not least, investment protection. In the area of investment protection, the US is still struggling to maintain arbitration, while Europe wants to establish its own court to decide in case of disputes about a company's investment.

If interested, we will be pleased to send you the presentation documents on request to marketing@kerres.at!

Kerres | Partners represents its clients’ interests in all matters of commercial law, transactions, litigation and arbitration, private foundations, as well as administrative law for more than 25 years. Kerres | Partners is one of Austria´s leading law firms and stands for knowledge, trust and success.