In a report on trade relations with the United States, published on Thursday 25 July, the European Commission wants to highlight “the progress made and illustrates the depth of [the transatlantic] relationship” over the past 12 months (see EUROPE 12303/15).
In addition to the five avenues of the positive agenda of this joint statement, drawn up by Presidents Juncker and Trump 12 months earlier (see EUROPE 12071/2), the Commission is looking at all aspects of this major trade relationship in this 43-page document.
The first track, the possibilities for deepening regulatory cooperation, is recognised as the most fruitful – in these discussions, led by the EU-US Executive Working Group, more progress would have been made in 1 year than after 4 years of negotiations on the TTIP, said a Commission source. Starting with conformity assessment: the EU negotiating directives, approved as early as April 2019, aimed to increase the sectoral coverage of the existing mutual recognition agreement for industrial products, in order to eliminate unnecessary double controls (see EUROPE 12175/1). Since July 2019, a third sector – pharmaceutical inspections of medicines for human use – has been added to the list (see EUROPE 12295/14). The Commission is confident that from September 2019 onwards, the parties will be able to move forward on texts to conclude a transatlantic agreement on conformity assessment.
Secondly, with regard to normative cooperation, the Commission hopes to establish a transatlantic roadmap in the near future to enable the joint development of standards in emerging sectors of strategic importance (such as robotics), improve existing tools to facilitate trade for exporters and support dialogue between transatlantic standards bodies.
Finally, within the framework of sectoral cooperation, a number of actions have been identified in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices and cybersecurity that can facilitate transatlantic trade.
On another avenue and mandate, the discussions on the liberalisation of customs duties on industrial products have, for the moment at least, not kept their promises: in question, the EU's refusal to give in to American pressure and to include agriculture in these talks (see EUROPE 12169/19). A detailed analysis of the potential gains that these talks could generate is attached.
Next, the avenue of multilateral cooperation, focusing mainly on the fight against unfair trade practices, mainly Chinese, including subsidies and forced technology transfers – the text also reviews the entire trade defence arsenal – and WTO reform. The EU hopes to have new proposals for multilateral rules on subsidies to industry and state-owned enterprises finalised by autumn 2019. Here, the report also looks at other forms of successful transatlantic cooperation, such as the beef agreement (see EUROPE 12296/24).
Last but not least, cooperation on energy issues (LNG) and soya has led to an increase in EU imports – notably with the January 2019 recognition of the soya production programme in the United States.
Read the report: https://bit.ly/2K0Uvyf (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)