US, EU upbeat after trade talks
Negotiations delayed for a month by US government shutdown now “fully back on track”.
Negotiators from the European Union and the United States today ended the second formal round of talks on a transatlantic trade deal, with both sides striking a confident and positive note.
Karel De Gucht, the European commissioner for trade, said that the talks were now “fully back on track” after the partial shutdown of the US government forced the talks to be postponed. The talks had been scheduled to take place on 7-11 October.
The shutdown led to considerable re-scheduling problems and contributed to a reduction in the size of the teams that have been negotiating in Brussels over the past five days. Scheduling meant that talks on some topics were held over video, and that some topics – on tariffs and on sustainable development, including labour and environment – will only be discussed in video conferences over the coming weeks. A follow-up meeting on financial services, to be held on 27 November, was also attributed to scheduling.
To date, the discussions have been exploratory, seeking to identify the areas of difference and convergence and the approaches that could be adopted to narrow the gaps. This has involved discussions about specific sectors, but also about cross-cutting issues.
The negotiators will now move towards the specific points to negotiations. Formal texts will be prepared for the third round, which will take place in Washington, DC, on 16-20 December. After that round, the chief negotiators – Ignacio García Bercero for the European Commission and Dan Mullaney for the US – will give their appraisal of the obstacles and opportunities. Specific offers would then begin to be traded. It is at that point that the most difficult topics might be taken off the agenda.
Both Bercero and Mullaney described the talks as very successful and productive and said nothing to undermine both sides’ assertion that they still believe that the final agreement will be deep and far-reaching. The EU estimates that the economic benefit of a deal could amount to up to €119 billion a year, a figure reached in part by assuming that the deal will tap about a quarter of the potential of full free trade. A deal is also important to both sides as a means of shaping trade-liberalisation talks with other countries and within the World Trade Organization. The vast majority of gains are expected to come from reducing regulatory differences.
Several issues have, however, emerged as highly problematic since the start of talks in July, including the Jones Act that allows only US-built and US-owned merchant ships to carry goods between US ports. After this week’s round, the EU’s Bercero sought to allay concerns that negotiations about investment protection – an issue put forward by the US despite marked reservations on the part of European member states – could give US corporations the ability to undermine EU law and regulators. “For us, it is clear that [an agreement on investment protection] is something that has to be fully in line with the right to regulate,” he said. Nonetheless, the EU’s press statement says that “there was a good degree of agreement on getting an ambitious deal”.
The Commission’s official statement was less upbeat in its description about talks on energy and raw materials, and Bercero was emphatic that for the EU “it will be very important to have very clear guarantees”. Mullaney gave no hint that the US sees room for movement.
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