Brussels, 19/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - The examination of two draft texts at deadlock in the Council will be central to the meeting of the European trade ministers, in Brussels on Friday 21 November: the revised draft regulation on trade defence instruments, and the draft regulation aiming to improve the conditions under which EU businesses can compete for public procurement contracts in third countries.
The ministers will discuss these two texts, both of which require qualified majority in order to be adopted by the Council, in agreement with the European Parliament. On the revision of the trade defence instruments, which was proposed by the Commission in April 2013 (EUROPE 10824), the Parliament consolidated its position in April (EUROPE 11063). On the reciprocity mechanism to open up third-country public procurement, which was proposed in March 2012 (EUROPE 10579), the Parliament adopted its position in November 2013 (EUROPE 10973).
On Friday, the ministers will also take stock of EU/United States free-trade negotiations (TTIP), which are still on track after seven rounds of talks at technical level (EUROPE 11171), but still awaiting new political impetus. Both sides reaffirmed their support for the TTIP on the sidelines of the G20 summit on 16 November (EUROPE 11198), and the new Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, will be in touch with the American Trade Representative, Mike Froman, this Friday.
The Council will discuss the multilateral negotiations of the Doha Round at the WTO, which experienced a breakthrough last week, with a compromise between the United States and India on the Indian food security programmes, paving the way for the implementation of the trade facilitation agreement, which was concluded at the Bali ministerial conference in December 2013 (EUROPE 11196).
The ministers will also take stock of progress in free-trade talks with Japan (for a summary, see EUROPE 11185) and Vietnam (EUROPE 11175). Lastly, the Council will adopt conclusions on the priorities of the trade agenda of the EU. (EH)