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Agenda item 2 is one of our on-going interests: the transatlantic trade and investment partnership. We have quite a comprehensive paper from the Scottish Parliament information centre and a letter from Francis Maude. I think that the letter is quite confused, so I will take questions from members for clarification.
TTIP is obviously a moveable feast, and there are a couple of things on which I would like to get further clarification. First, have we had an update on a possible meeting with Cecilia Malmström?
The clerk has just reminded me that nothing has been organised yet, but the committee will go to Strasbourg with the specific topic in mind.
My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I thought that there had been a letter not proposing something definite but giving an indication that there may be dialogue.
There was a commitment potentially to meet the Scottish Government, and we were hoping to tie into that. However, I do not think that there has been a lot of progress on that over the summer. Maybe we will chase the Government and see where it is with its plans. The committee will then be able to exploit that opportunity when it comes along.
Secondly, we will want to discuss with members of the European Parliament any discussions that they have had on the issue. Has there been any update on that?
There are plans for that in the work programme, which we will discuss later. We have a potential date to meet MEPs in November, which is not far off.
The negotiations are on-going, and the committee has done a considerable amount of work on the issue already but there are some issues still to be addressed, not the least of which is the continuing debate on the economic benefits of TTIP, which are referred to in the House of Commons briefing paper from the beginning of July. The committee might consider doing some further work on that. When negotiations are on-going, it is always difficult to decide at what point it would be appropriate to review them. However, we have embarked on detailed consideration of TTIP and, before the committee ceases to be at the end of the current session, we ought to factor in some further work on that.
We have built some work with MEPs into the work programme. We understand that the issue is not going away. The letter from Francis Maude suggests that he would be happy to provide updates to the committee on any developments, but Lord Livingston—[Interruption.]—sorry, David Lidington, who is the Minister of State for Europe, has decided not to come to the committee. In the letter, there seems to be a misunderstanding about who the Scottish Parliament is and who the Scottish Government is; there seems to be no understanding that they are two different entities.
I also have a request to make. SPICe has put together a comprehensive document. I suggest that we ask for regular updates from SPICe so that we can keep the matter to the forefront of our activities.
I suspect that, when the MEPs go back into session, TTIP will be a hot topic. I also suspect that the US will want to get the negotiations concluded before the next US elections, so there may be some impetus and further opportunities. We have a discussion with MEPs scheduled for November to allow us to continue our work on TTIP, so it is not off the agenda by any stretch of the imagination. Your good work in keeping the committee focused on the issue will also mean that it will not be off the agenda.
Does anyone else have any questions or comments on TTIP?
Rod Campbell mentioned the economic impact. If I recall rightly, when Scottish Government officials were in front of us some time ago, they indicated that they had not done an extensive amount of work on that issue. I would like us to check what work has been done on that to see what the practical implications might be for businesses in Scotland.
Positive or negative implications.
Yes.
By way of clarification, I lodged a parliamentary question on the issue on 24 August and have not yet had a response.
Is there anything else on TTIP? I thank Iain McIver from SPICe for the update. There is probably nothing about TTIP that he does not know now.
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