Brussels, 30/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - A very fashionable theme at the moment is growth, which will be at the centre of the debates during the second Council of European trade ministers under Danish presidency on Thursday 31 May in Brussels. Future bilateral agreements with the US and Japan are eagerly awaited with regard to their potential impact on recovery and will take up a large chunk of the ministers' agenda, which will also be tackling the theme of green growth.
Japan. Commissioner De Gucht will inform the Council about progress made in the scoping exercise in the free trade agreement negotiations. He will also give his point of view on what the next steps should be with regard to non-tariff barriers and public procurement.
US. The Council will assess what progress has been accomplished by the high level group set up at the end of last year to evaluate the possibility of there being a free trade agreement. Commissioner De Gucht shed some light on the high-level group discussions during the middle of this month. The group is expected to submit its conclusions this coming June. The scope of the agreement should include customs duties on goods, the lifting of barriers on trade in services and investment, non-tariff barriers and regulatory convergence. An agreement will not be negotiated any time soon unless the parties are certain that it will make a short-term contribution to growth and job creation. De Gucht is hoping to begin negotiations at the beginning of 2013 and will seek to restrict discussions to an 18-month period.
Canada. The Council will be informed about the progress made in the negotiations for a comprehensive bilateral agreement on the economy and trade, planned in 2009. It will be particularly interested in progress regarding access to the market in goods, public procurement, services, settling disputes and sanitary and phytosanitary issues, as well as investment protection. It will also tackle pending questions, such as rules of origin and intellectual copyright, particularly on pharmaceutical products. The Commission is still hoping to conclude these discussions by the end of the year.
Columbia/Peru. The Council is expected to adopt without discussion a decision that will authorise the signing and temporary application of a multi-party free trade agreement, initialled in March 2011.
Vietnam. The Council is expected to adopt without discussion a decision authorising the Commission to begin free trade agreement negotiations, which could begin very soon. The Commission and the Vietnamese government finalised the scope of negotiations last April.
Green growth. The Council will debate the issue of the liberalisation of trade in green goods and services, by way of bilateral trade relations, in addition to multilateral or plurilateral agreements on the scrapping of tariff barriers and non- tariff barriers to trade in environmental goods and services. The Danish Presidency considers that the liberalisation in green trade will bring more environmental, social and economic and trade advantages to the EU and third countries.
Various. The Council will tackle the issue of trade restrictions in Argentina. Ministers will also evaluate progress in free trade negotiations with India and trade relations with China. Finally, the Presidency will inform the Council of progress made in negotiations with the European Parliament on the draft regulations on bilateral investment treaties and the draft regulation updating the EU's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), whose current form expires at the end of 2013. (EH/transl.fl)