On Thursday, 21 March, European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis responded to several MEPs on the Committee on International Trade (INTA) who reproached the EU for not concluding enough trade agreements. The European Commission has been using its model agreement that contains binding sustainable development chapters as a basis for negotiating new free trade agreements. Mr Dombrovskis indicated that, nevertheless, this does not suit all the partners.
“I would even highlight [...] that we should not be applying this TSD [trade and sustainable development chapter—Ed.] as some kind of a straitjacket and one-size-fits-all [solution]; indeed, it needs to be tailor-made to the needs and also the level of development of our negotiating partners”, he affirmed. According to the commissioner, this is the only way that the EU will be able to conclude more agreements.
He gave the example of India, which refuses to discuss having TSD chapters in the agreement currently being negotiated. According to Mr Dombrovskis, “It’s clear [...] we’ll not be able to conclude the FTA based [...] on our template”.
He thus agreed with remarks made by Jörgen Warborn (EPP, Swedish) and Jan Zahradil (ECR, Czech), who believe that the EU is making too many demands in its trade agreements. “We have [...] been overloading the boat in those free trade agreements, and that is a reason why they are so hard to negotiate”, indicated Mr Warborn. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)