Brussels, 08/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - The 14th round of negotiations for an EU-US free trade agreement (TTIP), to be held in Brussels on 11-15 July, will be marked by a new exchange of text proposals between the two sides. The EU and US will continue their work of consolidating the text of the agreement and will also continue their discussions on commitments for market access - still with the objective of concluding an agreement in principle before the end of US President Barack Obama's mandate.
All the areas in each of the three negotiation pillars (market access, regulatory convergence, and rules) will be included, a Commission source told EUROPE.
On the one hand, the negotiators will continue their work on consolidating the texts of the future agreement, with the objective of “reaching the consolidation of the texts in all areas before the end of the summer, so that the body of the full treaty emerges after the summer and before the end of the Obama administration” in January 2017, the same source stated.
On the other hand, the parties will continue their discussions on the commitments of each side as regards market access for the three sectors (goods, services, and public procurement). “Public procurement is a priority. What we [the EU] want is to trigger renewed effort in order to reach a higher basic offer on public procurement before the end game of the negotiations”, the source continued.
The novelty lies in there being a “significant exchange” of texts. The EU will table proposals for TTIP's institutional framework, for the chapter on energy and raw materials, and on digital trade, while the US will table proposals on trade defence and technical barriers to trade.
The EU's proposal for a separate chapter on energy will have three aspects - one aimed at “the confirmation, through TTIP, of the liberalisation of energy imports and exports by the two parties”; a second aspect aimed at TTIP “contributing to increasing diversity of supply by applying normal trade policy rules that promote diversity of supplies” (eliminating export monopolies, third party access to pipeline infrastructure); and a third aspect aimed at fostering sustainability (through the exchange of best practice, for example to reduce the differences in the energy performance labelling of products), the source told EUROPE.
The two sides will also exchange text proposals on regulatory convergence in nine key industrial sectors. The EU made a proposal for pharmaceuticals at the previous negotiation round, and this time will make proposals for automobiles, cosmetics, medical equipment, textiles, chemicals and engineering. The US, on the other hand, will make a proposal on information and communication technology (ICT) products.
For the continuing process, the intense pace of technical level meetings between European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström and US Trade Representative Mike Froman will be maintained. These meetings are aimed at advancing the talks on market access, and a new meeting is scheduled for September. The EU trade ministers will meanwhile take stock of the situation at an informal meeting in Bratislava on 23 September. A 15th round of negotiations has been planned in the US in October.
During a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Warsaw on Friday 8 July, Obama and the EU leaders - European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker - reaffirmed their desire to conclude the outline of an agreement before the end of 2016. “We want to conclude these negotiations before the end of this year, mainly as far as the big blocks of these negotiations are concerned”, Juncker stated. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)