In the July issue of the Economists Panel jointly conducted by Munich based Ifo Institute and the FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) newspaper, economics professors at German universities were surveyed on the planned free trade agreements TTIP and CETA. Results of the survey were presented today, July 27, 2016.

The majority of German economics professors are in favour of the planned free trade agreements TTIP and CETA. These are the results of the latest economists panel, a monthly survey conducted by the Ifo Institute in cooperation with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. According to the panel, around 72% of the 124 professors surveyed support the agreement with Canada (CETA); while around two thirds advocate an agreement with the United States (TTIP).

Commenting on the results of the panel, Niklas Potrafke, Director of the Ifo Center for Public Finance and Political Economy, notes that its participants focused on the economic advantages of both agreements: "Free trade increases prosperity, with each partner contributing what they are best at producing."

Two thirds of participants think that CETA is “likely” or “very likely” to be concluded. A majority of economists, by contrast, expects the TTIP negotiations to break down. Only 28% thinks that the TTIP negotiations are “likely” to be concluded. Over half of survey participants expect a failure to reach an agreement to have a negative impact on the German economy in the medium term.

In addition to their economic impact, discussions in the media also often discuss the risks associated with the trade agreements, such as, for instance, the potential lowering of standards or the misuse of arbitration proceedings. The economists were therefore asked for their assessments of the risks associated with the planned trade agreements CETA and TTIP. Participants were able to state whether they see no risks related to the respective trade agreements on a 10 point scale with (0) for no risks and (10) for very high risks. On average, the results show that participants see the risks related to both agreements as fairly low. The average value for the TTIP agreement was 4.79, compared to just 3.72 for the CETA agreement.