The notion that domestic regulations can have discriminatory impacts on imports (amounting to protectionism) isn’t controversial. Nor is it a revelation that having to comply with different sets of regulations in different jurisdictions that are intended to achieve the same safety or health or environmental outcome is superfluous and costly to businesses. Reducing or eliminating those kinds of costs could produce enormous saving. Indeed, many observers have suggested that the greatest gains from a TTIP agreement would come from a robust “regulatory coherence” outcome.

In today’s Cato Online Forum essay, trade scholar Simon Lester offers some much needed clarity about the substance and process of TTIP’s so-called regulatory coherence negotiations, while providing suggestions on how best to proceed.

Simon’s essay is offered in conjunction with a Cato Institute conference on the TTIP taking place October 12. Read it. Provide feedback. And please register to attend the conference.