Brussels, 15/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - Positions still seemed to be a long way apart on the market access pillar in the free-trade negotiations between the EU and the United States (TTIP) following the 14th round of talks at technical level - which closed in Brussels on Friday 15 July, with the Europeans insisting on increased openness of the American government markets and the protection of geographical indications, and the Americans calling for more concessions from the EU on agricultural tariff liberalisation.
“For the EU, substantial improvement in market access at all levels of government continues to be a key objective of these negotiations. And we are still very far from achieving that goal. Indeed, the gap between the level of ambition on tariffs and procurement remains a serious cause for concern”, the European chief negotiator, Ignacio Garcia Bercero, told the press after the round.
“On market access, the EU aims at a comparable level of ambition on tariffs, services and public procurement”, said Bercero.
“On tariffs, we have (reached) a very advanced stage of negotiations. We have now on the table good offers from both sides which include 97% of all tariff lines, leaving the remaining 3% [sensitive agricultural products] for the so-called endgame. We are still working on improvements within the 97% offer, by for instance looking at more rapidly eliminating most tariffs. We also have yet to find balance within the agricultural silo between the progress on tariffs and the progress on the other issues important to the EU, such as geographical indications”, he went on to explain.
As regards services, Bercero reported an agreement between the two sides on the “importance of the ambitious outcome which goes beyond what we have achieved so far in our existing agreements” on market access.
“On access to procurement markets, we will focus on the commitments already made in the framework of the WTO agreement on government contracts, as revised. In the framework of TTIP, we have already tabled our most generous offer”, countered the American negotiator, Dan Mullaney.
“The hardest questions are the last ones to be negotiated. We urgently need to start talks on the 3% of remaining tariff lines. The EU and the US believe that we must eventually increase all tariff duty. The United States is trying to push the envelope on customs tariffs”, Mullaney continued.
“Our exports of agricultural products are up throughout the world and down in Europe”, he pointed out, also stressing the American intransigence on the question of geographical indications, which are particularly important to the EU. Whilst Bercero acknowledged that the positions on this issue were still “quite a long way apart”, Mullaney reiterated the solidity of the American system for the protection of agri-foodstuffs, which European producers enjoy for their cheese and wine.
On services, “progress has been unusually slow”, he added, calling for taxation issues in the context of services to be discussed.
More generally, the 14th round of TTIP was marked by the exchange of many proposed texts between the two sides, which continued their work to consolidate the text of the agreement, again with the aim of concluding an agreement in principle before the end of the term in office of the administration of American President Barack Obama (EUROPE 11590).
“We are at an advanced stage of negotiations, but there is still a lot of work to be done. However, we have a clear idea of what the agreement will look like”, Bercero said on Friday, saying that he expected an agreement text with 30 chapters, the consolidation of which will be at a more advanced stage by the end of September. “After the summer break, we will have a good basis”, he added.
Bercero also stressed the importance of the negotiation process of political level, underlining the need for a “strong commitment on both sides”. “Environment policy is increasingly difficult. It is vital that we make the right political choices to conclude a good agreement”, he reiterated.
“We now need to plug the gap. It is possible to reach a result in 2016, but it will take a lot of political will and pragmatism. The US is ready to conclude this year”, said Mullaney, who had said earlier that he expected “more progress” on removing the technical barriers to trade, but also on electronic trade and data flows.
Brexit - the ghost at the feast. “The United Kingdom leaving the EU would have the effect of reducing the scope of TTIP, as 20% of US exports to the EU go to the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the United Kingdom is still the world's largest services market”, said Mullaney, answering a question from the press. “We are analysing all of this. If we say that TTIP will not apply to California, that would complicate matters”, said the American negotiator. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)