In 2013 the HCCI Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research (IEER) prepared a survey commissioned by the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry regarding the planned free trade agreement between the EU and the U.S. The research gauged the opinion of Hungarian companies toward the free trade agreement. The planned treaty is a bilateral trade agreement between the European Union and the United States to dismantle existing trade barriers and to harmonize a variety of technical, engineering, and legal regulations. During the survey, 242 companies completed the questionnaire online and 231 companies were queried over the phone by staff appointed by the IEER. Thus, the sample comprises a total of 473 companies.

In the following analysis we focus on how opinions toward the free trade agreement (FTA) are formed at companies with import and/or export activities as well as those with or without any existing connection to the U.S. The results show that a relatively broad range of companies are familiar with the proposed free trade agreement: 57% of respondents have heard about it. In the case of implementation of the convention, companies are of the view that its effects will be felt more at the relevant corporate sector level as opposed to directly in the case of their own business. Both at the corporate sector and the individual levels, most companies do not think that the convention will have either an overly positive or negative effect. Companies with interests in the US are dominated by positive expectations at both the corporate sector and individual levels; this group contains less of those that are uncertain, those who feel they are unaffected by the agreement, and those that count on negative consequences. The latter results, however, cannot be generalized because of the small number of cases, and thus must be regarded with reservation.