Brussels, 21/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 21 January, Latvia's secretary of state for European affairs, Zanda Kalnina-Lukasevica, told the European Parliament's international trade committee that progress in the free trade talks with the US (TTIP), Japan and Vietnam was the focus of the Latvian Presidency's programme on trade.
“As well as its economic benefits, an ambitious TTIP could offer important geopolitical benefits in the current context”, said Kalnina-Lukasevica, who had to respond to the concerns of representatives from several political groups in this committee. The concerns were on increased transparency in the negotiations, and on the process to follow regarding the chapter on investment protection and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). “The mediation regimes are important. We hope to hold discussions very early on in our presidency on the form of the ISDS mechanism, taking into account the concerns expressed in the public consultation”, she said.
On the bilateral level, the Latvian Presidency also wants to move forward to implementing 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. “We don't want to re-open the agreement with Canada. We think that the remaining concerns can be taken into account in the legal scrubbing”, said Kalnina-Lukasevica.
On the multilateral level, the Latvian Presidency wants progress on the WTO Doha agenda, after the Bali mini-agreement reached at the end of 2013, and the breakthrough made at the end of 2014 for implementing the trade facilitation agreement. The Latvian Presidency will also support the preparations for the 10th WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi (Kenya) in December. In addition, the Presidency will encourage the negotiations for an international trade in services agreement (TiSA), negotiations on environmental goods and services (the green goods initiative), and finalisation of the review of the WTO information technology agreement (ITA). The Presidency will also encourage the ongoing WTO accession negotiations with Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kazakhstan and Serbia.
On the legislative level, the Latvian Presidency wants to obtain a negotiating mandate with the Parliament on the proposal for a European self-certification system for minerals from conflict areas (see EUROPE 11032), and on the review of the 2005 regulation on the trade of certain goods likely to be used to inflict capital punishment, torture or other degrading treatment. (EH)