Work for a fairer multilateral trade system and the future relations with the two other global trade giants – the USA and China – form the background of the EU trade ministers' work as they meet for an informal session in Valletta under the chairmanship of Malta's Economy Minister Christian Cardona on Thursday 2 and Friday 3 March.
At a working dinner on Thursday evening, the ministers and European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström were due to talk to WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo and the chair of the European Parliament's international trade committee, Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany), about the expectations for the 11th WTO ministerial conference (which will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 11 to 14 December), as well as the longer-term vision for the WTO.
Ten days after the entry into force of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, the first multilateral trade agreement concluded since the creation of the WTO in 1995 (see EUROPE 11731), the ministers and Azevedo will assess the deliverables in Buenos Aires on issues covered as part of the Doha round (like the issue of internal support to agriculture or new issues, such as e-commerce).
On Friday morning, the ministers will discuss the legislative proposal on a new anti-dumping methodology for how to handle China in the EU's anti-dumping investigations when the arrangements on this expire in China's WTO accession protocol (see EUROPE 11664). The Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU is aiming for a Council position on this issue this spring. China called for the opening of consultations with the EU at the WTO on 12 December (see EUROPE 11687).
This proposal comes in the broader context of the reform of the EU's trade defence policy and the proposal on updating its trade defence instruments. The Council and European Parliament will now negotiate on this in trialogue (see EUROPE 11735) following the agreement obtained at the Council under Slovak presidency at the end of 2016 after a three-year blockage (see EUROPE 11688).
Malmström will then present the proposal to the ministers that was tabled by the EU and Canada in late 2016 to establish a multilateral mechanism for settling investment disputes (see EUROPE 11687, 11691). The objective of this proposal is to create a single permanent body tasked with arbitrating investment disputes in future free trade agreements and to move away from the ad hoc system of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). This proposal is based on the new model promoted by the EU for settling disputes between investors and states – the investment court system (ICS) which was proposed by the Commission in September 2015 (see EUROPE 11390) and which is provided for in the EU-Canada, EU-Singapore and EU-Vietnam free trade agreements. The ICS is also proposed by the EU in all its new free trade and investment agreements.
Over a working lunch, the ministers will discuss the challenges of the EU's trade policy in a new global context marked by the protectionist intentions of new US President Donald Trump, and in a difficult internal context with public distrust of, and hostility to, free trade agreements just as the EU has a very full agenda (with key negotiations under way with Japan, Mercosur, Mexico and the ASEAN countries, and planned with Australia and New Zealand). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)