The removal of trade barriers with the United States could potentially increase Malta’s real capital income by 4.84%, however scrutiny of the rules is crucial. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), currently being negotiated between the EU and the USA, is a wide-ranging agreement which covers several sectors.

The potential and impact of an EU-US trade agreement on key industry in Malta were discussed in a series of sectorial roundtables organised by the European Parliament Office in Malta in collaboration with the Malta Business Bureau.

MEP Roberta Metsola stressed that the agreement should be in line with Malta’s high standards of protection of the environment, health, safety, privacy and data protection. “We need to assess the impact of Malta’s own competitiveness even in relation to our EU counterparts”, she said.

"There are coherent aims such as convergence on prudential assessments and in the interpretation and reliance on the respective regulatory frameworks", MEP Alfred Sant added.

"There are red lines when it comes to, for example, the transparency of clinical trials of new pharmaceutical products", Dalli explained. "It is important that stakeholders at national level prompt us with their timely input about any issues and concerns that we could flag up", MEP Miriam Dalli said.

These sessions brought together representatives of major enterprises and bodies from the following sectors: manufacturing, financial services, pharmaceuticals, and transport and logistics. These included sectorial representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, and relevant ministries and agencies.