Brussels, 14/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - Meeting under the leadership of Industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen and Dan Price, President George Bush's Advisor for International Economic Affairs, during the 2nd Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) in Brussels on 13 May, the European Commission and the US Administration adopted a joint statement setting out the main advances made in their work since the first TEC meeting in November 2007 (EUROPE 9541).
Results of the 2nd TEC show “steady progress towards a more convergent transatlantic regulatory environment in a number of priority areas”, the text underlines, setting out the following steps taken: - the European Commission will, before the EU/US summit in June, propose changes to EU regulations that will allow the importation of poultry meat processed using pathogen reduction treatments (PRT), as well as the use of such treatments in EU member states in the production of poultry meat for consumption. It will seek a solution agreed with the Council and European Parliament by the next TEC meeting this autumn; - the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration is to publish a new request for information (RFI) concerning suppliers' declaration of conformity as a basis for certifying that certain electrical and electronic equipment is safe for use in US workplaces; - the European Commission will take concrete action to ensure that trade in cosmetics and personal care products is not disrupted by REACH implementation on chemical products. It will undertake the necessary steps to ensure transparent implementation, legal certainty and non-discriminatory trade; - the TEC has adopted a statement on promoting open investment policies (see below); - the Commission will propose a positive decision during 2008 on the equivalence of US accounting standards (GAPP) to EU rules (which give preference to IFRS); - the work on mutual recognition in securities regulation has intensified and the EU and SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) will define a process for carrying out comparability assessments of their securities regimes by the end of 2008. The TEC also encourages the implementation of other approaches to facilitate cross-border financial services; - the TEC has urged financial markets regulators to identify, by the end of 2008, the steps that need to be taken to create a true level playing field for EU and US insurance companies in each other's jurisdiction; - US Customs and Border Protection and the European Commission will work to implement the roadmap for achieving mutual recognition of trade partnership programmes; - Cooperation between the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Commission has been intensified in several areas which will facilitate transatlantic trade, such as validation of alternative methods to animal testing for cosmetic ingredients, administrative simplification for medicinal products, and the provision of parallel scientific advice from the FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) to veterinary medicine manufacturers; - the EU-US High Level Regulatory Cooperation Forum has presented a report on strengthening cooperation on the safety of imported products; - closer EU-US cooperation has been reported in a number of other areas such as intellectual property rights enforcement, automobile safety, consumer protection on the internet, identification of potential areas of convergence in standards for biofuels, and the use of radio frequency identification technology; - and the US Patent and Trademark Office and the European Commission have agreed to a roadmap to advance global patent harmonisation.
The text nonetheless sets out specific concerns expressed by the parties, that the TEC is as yet unable to resolve. The US side has expressed concerns that the REACH regulation and its implementation are already causing serious problems for the export of US chemical products and goods that contain or are produced using those products to the EU market. The Commission has expressed its concerns that US legislation requiring 100% scanning of containers bound for US ports starting in 2012 or later may cause problems for the export of EU products.
Towards reopening EU to poultry treated with chlorinated water? Expressing the hope of finding a definitive solution to this issue with the European capitals by the autumn, Messrs Verheugen and Price confirmed to the press that the Commission will be proposing, on 28 May, reopening of the Community market to imports of poultry produced in the US and disinfected in chlorinated water. The proposal to lift the ban, which has been in place since 1997, will however come with a number of sanitary requirements such as the obligation for the Americans to rinse the poultry in drinking water, once it has been disinfected. Also, the poultry will be identified by labelling to inform European consumers. According to a provisional version of the Commission's draft text, lifting the ban will be decided for a provisional two-year period during which new scientific opinions will be requested on the potential effects of the four chemical substances used in American disinfectant washes (including chlorine dioxide). It will be a matter of seeing whether they cause increased tolerance by the organism to certain bacteria or whether they present environmental risks. The method preferred by the United States aims to kill or reduce the number of bacteria appearing in poultry (salmonella and campylobacters in particular), just before it is eaten. EU veterinarians, for their part, prefer hygiene inspections throughout the food chain.
Transatlantic commitment for promoting investment. In the context of growing protectionist pressure, the TEC has adopted a statement on the importance of an open global investment climate (EUROPE 9640). “We recognise our responsibility in resisting protectionist sentiment at home and in working together to oppose protectionism abroad. Barriers to international investment deprive the global economy, and the economies of countries that erect those barriers, of a vital source of economic growth”, the text underlines, affirming the transatlantic commitment to promoting an open global investment market. It goes on to highlight the benefits of international investment in terms of job creation, competitiveness and sustainable economic growth. It recalls that the principles of open investment include non-discrimination, transparency and progressive and unilateral liberalisation. It recognises the legitimacy of meeting national security concerns, but specifies that these “should be transparent, predictable and proportionate to the national security concern identified and precisely circumscribed so as to avoid unduly disrupting the flow of investment”, it states. Finally, the declaration stresses the importance of transparency of investment by sovereign wealth funds. (E.H.)