Brussels, 27/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - A week after the European Council announced its renewed desire on Friday 20 March to conclude a transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement (TTIP) between the EU and US before the end of 2015, Latvia's foreign minister, Edgars Rinkevics, appeared more cautious as to the possibility of achieving this within the stipulated timeframe. Rinkevics was speaking on the sidelines of the informal meeting of European trade ministers in Riga on 25 March.
“During our Presidency and during the next presidency of Luxembourg, most likely these negotiations will not be concluded. We have been discussing the overall strategy on how to achieve the agreement but we cannot exclude that it may take longer. The political will is there but in order to tango you need two (…) It is an agreement that has to be a good agreement”, Rinkevics stated.
“We cannot put a date. We plan to conclude talks under the Obama administration”, in other words in January 2017, said European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström.
Two new negotiating rounds on the technical level have been programmed - in the USA in April and in Brussels in July. After a meeting with US Trade Representative Mike Froman on 20 March, Malmström said she hoped that new offers on market access for services would be tabled before the summer break.
Attempts to break the myths. Following the dialogue with civil society, which remains very distrusting of TTIP and of controversial issues such as investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), the approximation of standards between the EU and US, the liberalisation of services and the risks for public services, the Commission has this week published a brochure - “The top 10 myths about TTIP: Separating fact from fiction” - which is available on DG Trade's website. (Emmanuel Hagry)