Brussels, 29/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - Be it as regards transparency in the transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement (TTIP) negotiations and the offer on the negotiating table, or be it as regards a new form of international justice for settling investment-related disputes, France expects more from the US side and wants more reciprocity, as French secretary for trade, Matthias Fekl, told journalists at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday 29 September.
Stopping off in Brussels on Tuesday, after a visit to Berlin on Monday evening where he shared his doubts with Germany's economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel, Fekl reiterated the concerns that he had already made known in an interview with French daily newspaper Sud Ouest on Monday (see EUROPE 11398). His concern was firstly about transparency in the talks, which he considers to be asymmetric. “We need to go further on access to the consolidated texts, particularly after the adoption of the Trade Promotion Authority (Ed: the so-called fast-track procedure that grants increased powers to the US president to negotiate and conclude free trade agreements), which allows US parliamentarians special treatment, with access to the negotiating table even being possible”, Fekl said. “You don't ask a country that is a 'friend' to go into secure rooms (Ed: in the American Embassy) to have access to documents”, Fekl said, referring to the fact that US parliamentarians have access to a larger number of documents than their European counterparts. “Transparency poses a fundamental problem of democracy”, he repeated.
As regards the substance of the negotiation, Fekl again deplored “a total lack of reciprocity” from the US. “Until now I haven't seen a single serious offer from our US partner: on questions of services, of access to public procurement, of geographical indications, of (investor-state) dispute arbitration, or on our new concept of international justice (in this regard). There can't be an agreement if we don't receive any serious proposals. If there is not a total change in attitude, we will consider halting the negotiations”, he warned. Fekl also criticised the current lack of commitment from the US, which nevertheless said it wanted “to weigh into the standards battle in order to set high standards - especially of consumer protection - at global level”.
As regards investment disputes, Fekl said he thought that the proposals tabled last week by European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström “are moving in the right direction”. These proposals are based on creating a permanent court for settling investment disputes as part of TTIP and allow an international investment court to be shaped in the longer term. “I was the first to call for the creation of a public court to settle investor-state disputes. Things moved after that. The French and German proposals are the basis of the European consensus on this issue”, he was pleased to state. Fekl was also pleased that the Commission's proposal was modelled on the French and German proposals “to fight against conflicts of interest and to ban attacks on democratic public policy choices”. He nevertheless regretted that his proposals to set up a quarantine period for the court's judges (between serving as arbitrators and lawyers for the same company or state) and his proposals to impose a fine for an improper appeal (aiming to issue the complainant company with a dissuasive fine of up to 50% of the damages claimed in cases where democratic public policy choice are contested) were not retained.
The EU and US negotiators will meet again in the US in the last two weeks of October for the 11th round of TTIP negotiations. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)