Brussels, 06/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Latvian Presidency, which took over the reins of the EU Council of Ministers for six months on 1 January, is placing progress in the free trade negotiations with the US (TTIP), Japan and Vietnam at the heart of its trade policy.
“Greater market openness, as well as increasing trade and investment flows, are all essential for promoting growth and economic recovery across the whole of the EU, in line with the needs of industrial and other EU policies”, the Latvian Presidency stated in its work programme published on its website on Tuesday 6 January.
On the bilateral level, the Presidency also wants to move forwards with implementation of the free trade agreements with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, and to support the necessary procedures for approving the free trade agreements with Canada (CETA) and Singapore.
On the multilateral level, the Presidency wants to progress the WTO Doha agenda, following on from the Bali mini-agreement that was concluded at the end of 2013, and from the breakthrough that came at the end of 2014 for implementing the agreement on trade facilitation. As well as the Doha negotiations, the Presidency will encourage the negotiations for an international trade in services agreement (TiSA), the negotiations for the green goods initiative, and finalisation of the review of the WTO information technology agreement (ITA).
Also on the multilateral level, the Presidency will encourage the ongoing WTO accession negotiations with Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kazakhstan and Serbia. It will also support the preparations for the 10th WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi (Kenya) in December.
In addition, the Latvian Presidency will monitor implementation of the new generalised system of preferences (GSP) scheme set up at the beginning of 2014 - particularly as regards the GSP+.
Lastly, the Presidency promises to ensure that EU trade policy continues to guarantee enforcement of the EU's rights under existing rules and to promote enhanced access to world markets, working - on the legislative level - for the benefit of all EU stakeholders.
The meeting of European trade ministers is scheduled for 7 May. (EH)