The TTIP has been lauded as the most important trade negotiation underway in Europe and United States. With the stagnation of the Doha Round and emergence of Asian regionalism, the US and EU have sought cross-regional bilateral free trade agreements as a means to promote export growth and disseminate new trade and investment rules for global governance. Though TTIP has garnered a lot of attention in terms of expected benefits, and has been much lauded by policymakers and pundits, it is arguably part of a larger global trend towards cross-regional free trade agreements. This paper examines TTIP in the context of US trade policy as the prospects for reaching a comprehensive deal are riddled with difficulties over sensitive sectors, as well as domestic political timetables with Congressional mid-term elections in 2014, and the US Trade Representative undertaking of trade negotiations without securing Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to secure the ease of Congressional ratification. The paper concludes by considering the accompanying effects of a transatlantic agreement upon third countries.