Brussels, 10/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Ignacio Bercero, the chief European negotiator in the negotiations for a transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement (TTIP), hopes to reach a common position with the US party on the key parameters of the TTIP agreement before the end of 2015. However, he is sceptical as to the possibility of concluding an agreement under the administration of US President Barack Obama. This is what Bercero told French daily newspaper Les Echos on Friday 10 April, ahead of the 10th round of technical level TTIP negotiations in New York on 20-24 April.
“The substance of the agreement comes before the speed of the negotiations”, Bercero stated, saying that the EU and US want “to reach a common position on the key parameters of the agreement in 2015” - market access (tariffs, services, government procurement), regulations, environmental protection and energy. “But it is an illusion to believe that we will conclude the agreement under the Obama administration. That would be record speed”, Bercero stated.
At their summit on 20 March, the European leaders reaffirmed their desire to conclude an agreement by the end of 2015. However, on 25 March, Latvia's foreign minister, Edgars Rinkevics, appeared more cautious as to the chances of achieving this. “We aim to conclude under the Obama administration”, in other words in January 2017, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström had said.
Thus far, 20 negotiation chapters have been opened and “we are finally embarking on the nub of the negotiations, with each party having set out its proposals on most of the chapters”, Bercero states in Les Echos. “From here on the negotiators are trying to find a good balance between everyone's demands. The process is slow because all our proposals are prepared ahead and checked with the Council afterwards”, he adds.
As regards the controversial issue of including an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause in the TTIP, Bercero confirms that the EU will submit a proposal to the US “by the end of the spring” for a reformed ISDS mechanism “in order to introduce more transparency and legitimacy into these arbitration procedures”. The Commission is working on several approaches, like that of proposing that arbitrators be appointed by both parties and that they have qualifications that are at least equivalent to those of national judges, or like that of introducing an appeal procedure, Bercero states. As regards the idea of creating a permanent international court on investment, Bercero believes that the adoption of common rules by the EU and US - the two biggest global investors - on this arbitration mechanism “would be very great progress which could prefigure such a system”. (Emmanuel Hagry)