At a meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade on Monday 4 February, MEPs on the left of the assembly reiterated their reluctance to accept two proposals pertaining to the negotiation of mandates with the United States.
According to these MEPs – led by the rapporteur, Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany), the author of Parliament's resolution – the conditions for starting trade negotiations with the Trump administration are far from being met. In a debate over two draft European Commission negotiating directives – on a trade agreement limited to non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and on conformity assessments – they highlighted what, for them, are the many obstacles standing in the way of the envisaged talks, including the lack of reference to the Paris Climate Agreement, but also the lack of a scoping exercise and recent impact assessments (see EUROPE 12184).
Inclusion of cars in negotiations?
As for the Commission's proposal to include the automotive sector in the mandate, the representative of the institution admitted that Presidents Juncker and Trump had excluded this sector from future talks in their joint statement of July 2018. Nevertheless, in terms of the institution, this inclusion would be pertinent: not only with regard to American recriminations – and the ongoing investigation under Section 232 (see EUROPE 11831) – but also in order to ensure an agreement wide enough in scope to comply with World Trade Organisation rules. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)