Brussels, 09/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - Noting a re-balancing between the market access offers on the negotiating table of the 23 stakeholder countries in the talks for a Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), the EU is ready to improve its offer in order to support the conclusion of an agreement before the end of 2016, a source close to the file at the Commission told EUROPE on Thursday 9 June.
The 18th round of TiSA talks in Geneva from 26 May to 5 June) enabled “some quite good progress”, this source stated. “There was a lot of engagement. That was a good surprise. Up to now we considered there was an imbalance in the quality of the offers on the table. The exchange of revised offers improved the situation. We are more confident. We now think we can engage in a process moving towards the conclusion of the negotiations by the end of 2016”, the source added.
Three, or even four, new negotiation rounds have been programmed for this purpose - one in July (8-18 July), one at the end of September, one in November, and “maybe” a final round in December.
During the 18th round of negotiations, which was chaired by the EU last week, the parties examined 22 of the 23 revised market access offers (Taiwan not being able to present its offer due to the recent change in its administration).
“The EU has an approach that is aimed at examining the quality of the offers sector by sector. We assessed the other offers while focusing on our priorities (Ed: the EU's offensive interests): financial services, telecommunications and maritime services”, the source stated, reaffirming that public services were excluded from the negotiations.
“In terms of market access, on the basis of the offers that are now on the table, we will all seek to contribute to elevate the level of ambition a little bit further, and the EU gave signals last week that it would be ready to contribute to this process”, the source added.
“Now that there is a more level playing field”, the EU (the revised offer of which was “not much” improvement on its initial offer due to the imbalance between the offers on the table up to that point) is ready to improve this at the next exchange of revised offers, the source stated.
Besides more ambition on market access, “much progress” is needed in the consolidation of the texts on key areas to be covered by the future agreement: telecommunications, e-commerce, financial services, the movement of service-providers (Mode 4 of the WTO TRIPS agreement), and the TiSA's institutional arrangements, the source said.
“Of course, at the end of the process, political decisions will be needed to favour a compromise”, the source added, giving assurances that the 23 stakeholder countries in the TiSA negotiations, which met on the sidelines of an OECD meeting in Paris on 1 June, had considered it was “realistic” to conclude an agreement “before the end of the year”, given the progress made on the technical level.
“We may not be far from reaching an agreement on TiSA by the end of the year. The recent revised offers and the work done so far represent real improvement, but we certainly still need more ambition. The EU is ready to go an additional mile but everyone needs to join in”, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström had said at the end of the meeting she chaired.
Twenty-three parties - Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the USA, and the EU - have been engaged in these negotiations since March 2013. The negotiations aim to bypass the stalemate of the WTO's Doha round on the liberalisation of trade in services. These 23 countries together account for 70% of the world's trade in services. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)