Meeting in Prague informally on Monday 31 October, the trade ministers of the 27 EU Member States discussed the geostrategic importance of trade.
“Strengthening trade ties will protect us against any blackmail in our supply chains”, said Czech Trade Minister Jozef Síkela, whose country holds the EU Council Presidency. The EU should therefore increase its trade, “especially with partners that are reliable”, he said.
EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis agreed, praising free trade agreements as promoting trust and rules-based trade. He was pleased “to see growing recognition of this fact among our Member States”.
The EU’s priority for the coming months is to sign the agreements with New Zealand, Chile and Mexico, and to advance negotiations with Australia, Indonesia and India. The EU concluded negotiations with Wellington in June (see EUROPE 12983/5) and plans to do the same with Chile in the coming weeks (see other news). Negotiations with Mexico could also be concluded before the end of the year.
Digitalisation, the EU must set the rules, not be subjected to them
Mr Dombrovskis stressed the need to promote the digital sector in all respects. The EU “is a rule-maker, not a rule-taker”, he said.
This is why the EU is playing a major role in the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations around the e-commerce moratorium, he explained. The moratorium exempts e-commerce from all tariffs, but a majority of developing countries oppose its extension beyond the end of 2023 (see EUROPE 12974/2).
Responding to EUROPE, Dombrovskis explained that between now and the next WTO ministerial conference, where the question of extension will arise, WTO members must make progress on the work programme on e-commerce. This work programme is charged with examining the relationship between existing WTO agreements and e-commerce. More work in this area may increase the chances of the moratorium being extended, the Commissioner believes.
He also highlighted recent moves in the area of data flows, with the announcement of the opening of negotiations between the EU and Japan to include rules on cross-border data flows in their Economic Partnership Agreement. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)