Brussels, 02/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Luxembourg Presidency, which on Wednesday took over the reins of the Council of the EU for six months, has a trade agenda with crucial deadlines between now and the end of December - both on the multilateral level (particularly the 10th WTO ministerial conference) and on the bilateral level (especially the TTIP negotiations and debate on the ISDS mechanism).
In its list of priorities, the Luxembourg Presidency says it wants “to focus on continuity and coherence in the field of trade policy, notably in terms of growth, job creation, opening third markets and sustainable development”, on the basis of the strategy tabled by the European Commission in 2010 (which is due to be updated in the second half of 2015).
On the multilateral level, the Luxembourg Presidency will steer the preparatory work for the 10th WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi in December, where the 161 member countries still hope to reach a political agreement on the Doha round, despite the current difficulties in achieving a post-Bali work agenda (see EUROPE 11329). “It is a matter of enhancing the credibility of the international rules-based trade system and paving the way for the conclusion of the Doha cycle, as well as the post-Doha cycle, whilst respecting the aspirations of developing countries and welcoming a greater contribution from emerging countries”, the Presidency states in its work programme.
The Luxembourg Presidency also wants to encourage the conclusion of the ongoing negotiations, on the sidelines of the WTO, for a plurilateral agreement on liberalising trade in environmental goods (see EUROPE 11337).
On the bilateral level, the Luxembourg Presidency wants to work for the conclusion, at political level, of the free trade negotiations with Vietnam and Japan, and for the signature of the free trade agreement with Canada (CETA), which is currently in the legal scrubbing process.
The Presidency also wants to make progress on the free trade negotiations with the USA (TTIP) “which will intensify during the second semester of 2015, when issues of substance are addressed.”
In this context, the Presidency will attach particular importance to the debates around the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms and to other sensitive TTIP issues, while working for as much transparency in the negotiations as possible.
The modernisation of the free trade agreement with Mexico, which has been in force since 2000, is also on the Luxembourg Presidency's agenda (see EUROPE 11331).
As regards the EU's neighbourhood, the Luxembourg Presidency is prioritising two key issues - firstly, the launch of trade negotiations with Tunisia in October (see EUROPE 11323), and secondly, the assessment by the end of 2015 of the requests to extend the EU's customs and quota measures for Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, taking account of “the specific political context and the evolution of the economic situation”.
On the legislative level, the Luxembourg Presidency wants to attend to several important issues, including the reform of the EU's trade defence policy and the mechanism for fostering reciprocity in third countries' public procurement access conditions to EU companies - two issues on which the Council was still deeply divided at the end of 2014 (see EUROPE 11202).
The Luxembourg Presidency will also have to conclude the trialogue discussions with the European Parliament and Commission on the draft regulation aiming to limit the financing of armed military groups in conflict areas (Great Lakes in the DRC and in eastern Africa) through the extraction and trade of war minerals, after the vote in first reading on 20 May (see EUROPE 11318).
In addition, the Luxembourg Presidency will attend to the review of the anti-torture regulation and to the issue of granting market economy status to China. (Emmanuel Hagry)