Brussels, 26/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The TTIP free trade talks between the EU and the United States entered their 12th round this week, with new progress in consolidating texts in two of the three pillars of the talks - cooperation and regulatory convergence, on the one hand, and rules on the other, explained the chief negotiators for the EU, Ignacio Bercero, and the US, Dan Mullaney, after work on Friday 26 February.
“We are approaching the target in many sectors, the contours are emerging, while in other sectors, things remain to be defined, but by July we hope that the texts will be in a state of advanced consolidation with as few catches and questions left hanging as possible. We are well set to achieve the objective”, said Mullaney.
“We are aware that plenty of work remains to be done and we must extend work in all domains of the negotiations. We would like substantial progress on the three pillars of the talks by the summer”, said Bercero.
Both men pointed out that as expressed at political level at the end of 2015 by Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and US Trade Representative Mike Froman, the two partners' ambition is to bring the talks as close as possible to the end stage by the summer, in order that agreement in principle may be reached before the end of the current US Administration, at the end of December 2016. Two further rounds of talks have already been scheduled with this in mind, one in April and one in June.
Before the next round, in the week of 29 February, the parties will exchange an initial examination of offers on access to public markets.
This week, the market pillar was relegated to second position. On the tariff front, the parties continued examination of revised offers exchanged in 2015, which now cover 97% of tariff lines (the remaining 3% - sensitive agriculture markets - have been put in an “other treatment” category and will be discussed in the final stage of the talks). On the other hand, the underlying question of rules of origin for goods will be discussed “over the next few weeks”, said Bercero.
On the question of services, the parties continued to make progress on consolidating the texts. Revised offers on the market in services were exchanged in the summer of 2015, using a hybrid approach of positive lists for market access and negative lists for exclusions.
Talks have intensified on the regulation and rules pillars. The idea is to make as much progress as possible on consolidating the tests before the summer break.
“We have made progress on the regulatory front and want to advance on convergence and compatibility without affecting the level of security and protection”, said Mullaney.
For the pillar of regulatory convergence, the talks are being pursued on the three regulatory cooperation horizontal disciplines of regulatory coherence, technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS).
In terms of regulatory coherence, which aims to draw up common principles on best practices of regulatory systems and an effective regulatory cooperation framework that respects the highest levels of protection of the standards of both parties and allows their regulatory bodies to move towards better regulatory convergence, the US has presented the EU with proposals on the second aspect (the EU presented its positions for the two underlying aspects of this area of the talks in the spring of 2015). “The talks have been extremely productive”, commented Mullaney.
Negotiations have also continued on the TBT and SPS. On the second aspect, the two sides are trying to develop an effective framework based on existing agreements, said Mullaney, pointing out that the parties had discussed regionalisation issues, audits, certification and ways of considering equivalences.
On the regulatory front, the parties also discussed ways of facilitating mutual recognition of professional qualifications in the services sector.
For the second chapter of the regulatory pillar, namely regulatory convergence in eight key industrial sectors (pharma, automobiles, chemicals, textiles, cosmetics, medical devices, engineering and pesticides), the discussions were pursued in the presence of the regulatory bodies with the aim of ensuring as clear as possible a common understanding of the concrete aims that can be achieved under TTIP for each of these sectors, explained Bercero.
On automobiles, where the talks are focusing on questions of safety, “the parties are seeking convergence and equivalence rather than harmonisation”, he added.
On the pillar on rules - sustainable development, energy, raw materials, customs, trade facilitation, intellectual property (including geographical indications), SMEs and more besides - Bercero said “significant progress” had been made on sustainable development and the protection of investment.
Concerning sustainable development (protecting labour and environmental standards), the US submitted its proposals this week (the EU submitted its proposals in October 2015). “We should aim at excellence in this domain”, commented Bercero. “We want to promote very high objectives and we want implementable and binding rules”, said Mullaney.
Finally, the two parties held initial talks on the protection of investment based on proposals from the US and the EU. In November 2015, the latter submitted its proposal for a new, more transparent system for dispute-settlement between investors and the state, the investment court system (ICS). “This round marks the start of talks where initial convergence is emerging”, said Bercero, stating that the proposals aim to establish a common arbitration system. He promised that they wanted to try to define rules to ensure investors will be protected without this altering the right of states in the public sphere. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)