Carrying on the intensive work of before Christmas, the eighth round of talks, which took place in Mexico from 8 to 12 January to update the EU-Mexico global agreement of 2000, enabled "very good progress" on all aspects of the agreement reviewed, but "in-depth work is still needed" on market access, rules, the protection of geographical indications and the protection of investments in order to lift the last obstacles to its conclusion, a source from the European Commission told EUROPE on Tuesday 16 January.
The negotiators have now finalised their work on competition, SMEs, transparency, sanitary issues, good regulatory practice and sustainable development.
"The parties remain firmly resolved to conclude the negotiations as quickly as possible", the same source added, stating that meetings and contact continued on the technical level. The negotiation teams will meet again soon in Brussels, on a date which remains to be decided.
The discussions are still stumbling on the agricultural section, especially on the issue of dairy products (which is very sensitive for the EU), on the protection of EU geographical indications in Mexico, on the opening of Mexican public procurement, and on the chapter on investment protection, where the EU is trying to convince Mexico to use its proposal of a special investment court system (ICS) to arbitrate in investment disputes. The ICS is included in the EU-Canada free trade agreement (CETA) and is aimed at replacing private arbitration courts of the ISDS type (see EUROPE 11936).
In May 2016, the EU and Mexico engaged in talks to update their free trade agreement. This agreement was sealed in 1997 and has been implemented since 2000. The goal of updating it is to include new subjects (environmental protection, labour rights, intellectual property rights and investment rights) and to bring new life to EU-Mexico trade, with the objective of bringing it into line with the CETA treaty signed with Canada, which the EU would like to use as a model. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)