Brussels, 15/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU and Chile have moved forward on all non-tariff aspects of the association and free trade agreement, during the 4th round of negotiations held this week in Brussels. An agreement seems in sight mainly on the chapters for competition and technical standards, while there are reportedly difficulties on public procurement and anti-dumping issues. Both parties nonetheless agreed to continue negotiating between now and the next session, which will open tariff negotiations and negotiations on services, probably on 9 July.
"This is the most successful session so far. We have reached a high number of common points", declared the Chilean Foreign Minister and Head of the Chilean delegation, Heraldo Muños, during a press conference. "We have negotiated for the first time on the basis of texts exchanged. In the political field, we have reached an agreement on the definition of the future institutional framework, and, for cooperation, considerable progress has also been made", added Guy Legras Director-General for External Relations at the European Commission and Head of the European Delegation. Mr Legras welcomed the "very good preparation of the Chilean delegation". "We have put the foundations down and we are almost at the first floor", assured Hervé Jouanjean, Director at DG Trade at the Commission.
By the month of July, a series of working groups will consolidate the work on questions of rules of origin, technical trade barriers, phytosanitary measures and intellectual property, said a European negotiator. In addition, "we plan to present proposals on tariff questions and services several weeks in advance", pointed out Heraldo Muños.
The five negotiating groups covered around twelve chapters this week, on which both parties had presented draft texts: - the technical preparation of tariff negotiations on goods, tariff and non-tariff disciplines, rules of origin, norms, technical regulation and certification procedure, trade protection instruments, public procurement, competition, intellectual property and the dispute settlement system.
Furthermore, the European Commission presented its proposal for dialogue on "trade facilitation" intended to reduce the technical barriers to trade on the basis of suggestions from companies (see EUROPE of 9 March, p.10). Chile welcomed this proposal quite positively. The two parties felt that trade facilitation constitutes a relevant aim of negotiations, states the text of the conclusions, specifying that work under way is already contributing to attaining this objective.
Both parties gave the following indications after the session:
Cooperation. Both parties reached an agreement on the chapters devoted to technical cooperation, cooperation regarding drugs and the information society as well as on the updating of the cooperation that exists in the context of the cooperation agreement concluded in 1996. They also specified the content of social cooperation and cooperation in the cultural and educational field, on which there was agreement from the last session of negotiations. The Commission announced its intention to request a mandate from Council to negotiate Chile's participation in the EU framework programme for research and development. Both parties agreed to settle this chapter by the end of the year.
Phytosanitary agreement and agreement on wine. Both parties defined the structure and the main chapters of the future bilateral sanitary and phytosanitary agreements and recognition of names of origin, negotiated at the same time as the agreement of free trade and association. Both parties are expected to exchange texts in coming weeks, states one Chilean diplomat.
Public procurement. Both parties exchanged texts and "identified elements of agreement and difficult areas". The question is that of knowing just how far the agreement will go in this field, said one European negotiator, who stressed that Chile, which is not a member of the WTO public procurement agreement, does not seem to want to go beyond the national treatment and the most favoured nation clause. "We agreement on the final aims of the agreement, for transparency for example. Chile is already very open to the outside, and it would be difficult to discriminate against national investors compared to foreign investor", said one Chilean negotiator.
Agriculture. Agriculture will certainly be a "sensitive issue", during negotiations on customs duties to begin in July, but it will not be comparable to the difficulties awaiting us with Mercosur, Guy Legras told EUROPE. Apples, grapes, tinned peaches are among the most sensitive Chilean farm exports for the EU. Chile hopes to also develop its exports of forestry products and shell fish.
Antidumping: the Chilean Deputy Prime Minister revealed that antidumping is also a sensitive subject for Chile and one which must not be neglected. During this session, the EU stated that the antidumping rules are "non negotiable" in a bilateral framework, but must be included in the agenda of the WTO multilateral negotiations, indicated a European negotiator. We cannot apply different antidumping rules according to the country, he added. There is no sense in negotiating a removal of tariff barriers if new barriers can be reintroduced through safeguard or antidumping clauses, replied the Chilean negotiator. The issue must be dealt with at both the bilateral and multilateral level, he felt, all the more so as the WTO negotiations do not progress sufficiently quickly.
Modification of European mandate: questioned over the possibility of modifying the EU negotiating mandate, to remove the ties that forces it to only conclude bilateral negotiation after the ending of multilateral negotiations in the WTO (as requested by the European Parliament), Guy Legras, wanted to be pragmatic: the modification of the mandate will only be discussed when the bilateral negotiation are in their final stages, and at this time it will require seeing the progression of the multilateral negotiation, he stated. If we have finished under the Spanish Presidency in 2002, all the better, Will we get there? I do not know, there is still work to be done, he underlined. The most important, is our will to progress rapidly. We must be realistic and show flexibility, added Deputy Prime Minister Munos.