Brussels, 08/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The agenda for the 2nd Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) on Friday 9 November in Washington is rather full. The commissioner for industry, Günter Verheugen, and President Bush's coordinator for economic policy, Al Hubbard, will tackle a broad range of questions: import security, container safety, testing methods for cosmetics, orphan medicines and poultry processing. The European delegation will consist of Commissioners Peter Mandelson (trade), Charlie McCreevy (internal market), Laszlo Kovacs (customs and taxation) and Meglena Kuneva (consumers), as well as the Portuguese minister of the economy and president of the Council, Manuel Pinho.
The Council is based on the initiative of Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and aims to reduce non-tariff and regulatory barriers in trade and promote convergence of future regulation. The TEC was set up during the EU/US summit on 30 April in Washington in an effort to ensure the follow-up and attainment of the objectives in the new joint framework for speeding up transatlantic economic integration (EUROPE 9458). The TEC is expected to monitor and accelerate implementation of transatlantic cooperation initiatives covered by the framework. It is targeting specific sectors of activity: agriculture, cars, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and food safety, cosmetic products, health services and pharmaceutical products, chemical products and nano-materials, ICT and electronic equipment. It is based on priority projects in the following areas: norms and standardisation, intellectual property, security, safety and trade facilitation, innovation and technology, and financial markets and investment.
The greatest advance expected from this meeting involves mutual recognition of compatibility norms. Washington is expected to confirm the US commitment to make their accounting rules more flexible, and allow European companies to be quoted on the US stock markets but without having to convert their accounts into those determined by US standards (US GAAP). Europe wants the international standard (IFRS) to be adopted. According to the US ambassador to the EU, Boyden Gray, this commitment is expected to be put into practice in 2008 and not in 2009 as the US previously indicated.
According to Mr Gray, a dozen concrete decisions are expected this Friday. After only four months of work, the adoption of simplified authorisation procedures of orphan medicines for the treatment or rare diseases, a first step towards the adoption of common standards for energy efficiency and biocarbons, as well as the launch of a dialogue on investment, are expected to be the main concrete results of the 2nd TEC meeting. The meeting will also tackle the question of making the administrative burden lighter, a problem linked to the existence of different regulations on the different sides of the Atlantic. Container security will also be discussed. Commissioner Kovacs is expected to oppose US legislation of last August which, by July 2012, intends to include 100% scanning (inspection) before the departure of all containers from their port of origin which are bound for US ports. Product safety, toys in particular, will also be at the heart of discussions: Europeans and Americans will also discuss the question of the import ban into the EU of chickens slaughtered and washed in chlorine from the US. Views diverge on the post-slaughter treatment standards. An exchange of views is also planned on problems posed by different rules governing cosmetic product trials. The EU is committed to reducing animal testing. (E.H.)