Brussels, 13/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - EU trade ministers expressed their desire on Friday 13 May to sign a free trade agreement with the United States (TTIP) by the end of the year that is ambitious in all the key domains for the European side.
Dutch trade minister Lilianne Plommen said after the Council meeting that they had “recognised progress made in recent months, but work still needs to be done before entering the final phase of the negotiations and the next few months would be crucial”. She said there was “not much time left if they wanted to add the finishing touches before the end of the year”.
She said the ministers had pointed out that “time was important, but the contents of the agreement were important too”. She said they wanted an “ambitious agreement in all key domains and the EU's interests needed to be strongly reflected, including in terms of high standards on the labour market and food safety, and there wouldn't be a TTIP on the cheap”.
Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said they had made “good progress in the last round of talks and wanted to have as many chapters consolidated as possible before the summer. She said the plan was to do the utmost to finalise these negotiations before the end of the term of office of the current president, Barack Obama, but not to the detriment of the content”.
She added that they were of course “highly aware of both sides' red lines, priorities and the limits of the EU's key interests. If work is to be crowned with success, it will be possible to reach agreement this year, otherwise the situation will have to be reviewed and work continued with the next US administration”. She added that the most important thing was the content.
Malmström pointed out that the EU “wanted an equivalent level of balance of offers for access to the market - tariffs, services and public procurement”. She explained that this hadn't been achieved yet, but they would “aim to make progress before reaching the end phase of the negotiations”.
Despite the progress made in the thirteenth round of talks in New York at the end of April (see EUROPE 11453) in terms of consolidating texts under the regulation and rules pillars, a lot of work remains to be done and bridges to be built in order to satisfy the EU's key demands - services, public procurement and geographical indications - if agreement in principle is to be reached before the end of 2016. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)