On Monday 30 July, the European Commission published the progress reports on the first rounds of talks towards free-trade agreements between the EU and Australia on one hand, and the EU and New Zealand, as well as the EU's textual proposals covering 12 areas of talks with Australia and 11 with New Zealand.
These first negotiating sessions at technical level allowed the negotiation groups to be set in place and the work to be organised, and launched the first substantive discussions on almost all chapters covered (see EUROPE 12060, 12069). The next rounds of negotiations will be held in Australia and New Zealand in November.
The EU's textual proposals published on Monday concern the following for each of these areas in negotiations with Australia and New Zealand: customs and trade facilitation; dispute settlement; energy and raw materials; public procurement; intellectual property; rules of origin; SMEs; state-owned enterprises; technical barriers to trade; trade in goods; trade remedies.
The documents are available via the following link: https://bit.ly/2NTiCiw. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)