Brussels, 26/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - EU trade talks in Athens will enable ministers to discuss progress in the first eight months of free trade talks with the United States.
United States. Following the initial political assessment drawn up on 17 and 18 February by EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and his US counterpart, Mike Froman, after eight rounds of talks over a transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP), the 28 EU trade minsters will be briefed by the European Commission on progress to date at a meeting in Athens organised by the Greek Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers on Friday 28 February.
While there has been steady progress since June 2013, the talks must now step up a gear and address pressing issues, explained De Gucht last week (see EUROPE 11022). Brussels and Washington have agreed to pull out the stops over the next six or seven months, and have scheduled a fourth round of talks in Brussels in the week of 10-14 March and an EU-US summit of heads of state in Brussels on 26 March.
In addition to the chapter on market access for farm and industrial products following initial talks on tariff offers earlier this month (see EUROPE 11014), the EU and US will knuckle down to preparing an initial exchange of offers on services. De Gucht said he was expecting the US to come up with ambitious proposals for services and public procurement. Along with deciding on a mechanism on investment protection (controversial on the European side of the Atlantic), the parties are expected to move closer on more complex issues like regulatory convergence in various industrial sectors and the health and plant health domains.
Although De Gucht constantly argues that the strict EU rules on health and safety in general and agri-food issues like hormone-fed beef and genetically-modified organisms will not be watered down, the US said on Friday that these issues were a red line for them in the TTIP talks.
WTO/Doha. At a working lunch ahead of their meeting, the ministers will discuss the post-Bali situation, implementation this year of the Bali package and the December 2013 mini-agreement on the Doha Trade Round at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The Bali package includes a trade facilitation deal, development issues and updates on farm issues in the Doha round, like public stockholdings for food security purposes and a decision on export competition to eliminate all forms of export subsidies.
Geographical indications. The ministers will have a working breakfast on protection of geographical indications at global level. Geographical indications are names, symbols or logos for food and farm products from a specific geographical area or region, whose use guarantees a certain high quality or reputation for the product in question due to the fact it comes from the geographical area in question. The EU has a regulation on the protection and promotion of geographical indications on the internal market (protected appellations of origin and protected geographical indications) and is keen to have them protected internationally and in bilateral trade deals. So far, only wines and spirits have been granted global protection under WTO intellectual property deals (TRIPS) and one of the stumbling blocks in the Doha Round is the question of the WTO providing protection for geographical indications. (EH)