Brussels, 24/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - The launching of free trade talks with the other two major economies of the developed world is the focus of Dublin's programme.
As Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny showed early January, his country, which has taken over the presidency of the EU Council for the first half of 2013, is, despite the sensitive points pertaining to agriculture, very enthusiastic about the prospect of a free trade agreement with the United States. Pending recommendations from the high-level group responsible for studying the feasibility of the agreement and also a go-ahead from Council, transatlantic talks will be at the core of the informal meeting of European trade ministers in Dublin mid-April, said Irish Minister Richard Bruton, who came to present his priorities to the European Parliament on Wednesday 23 January. The Irish Presidency intends during its term of office to encourage the granting of a negotiating mandate to the Commission.
Dublin also hopes to “move forward with the start of negotiations with Japan very soon”, complete talks that are nearing their conclusion with Canada and Singapore, and take forward those with India. The Irish Presidency also plans to “prepare the ground for the next summit” between EU and China for talks on investment with the world's second largest economic power.
In the context of neighbourhood policy, the Irish Presidency hopes that free trade negotiations with Armenia, Georgia and Moldova, which are making “good progress”, will be “substantially completed during our Presidency”, Bruton explained. With the EU's Mediterranean southern neighbours, the Irish Presidency hopes that the “launch of trade talks with Morocco will be symbolic of a new, dynamic and supportive relationship” with the Arab Spring countries.
Despite the halt in the multilateral talks of the Doha Round at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), their agenda dedicated to development “continues to be of significant importance for the Irish Presidency”, with the prospect of a successful outcome on trade facilitation during the next WTO ministerial conference in December, in Bali, Bruton intimated. Still in the context of WTO, the Irish Presidency hopes to make an active contribution to the multilateral talks on services in the near future, in the light of which it plans to promote the granting of a mandate to the Commission.
Finally, Dublin plans to take several dossiers on trade forward, including that on the dispute settlement mechanism between states on investment, the new instrument on access to public procurement, the new enforcement regulation aimed at enforcing the EU's rights in international trade rules (see EUROPE 10754), and the regulation on market access in the context of the economic partnership agreements (EPAs), in second reading in Parliament. (EH/transl.jl)