EU Trade Chief Touts Transatlantic Partnership as “Laboratory for New Global Rules”
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht touted the proposed EU-U.S. transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) in a flurry of speeches April 18-19 in Dublin, Ireland. At the Institute for International and European Affairs April 19, De Gucht said EU trade ministers are focused on negotiations for the agreement not because those talks are more important than progress in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and multilateral trading, but because the TTIP will strengthen those existing systems. Moreover, he said, the scale of the treaty “is such that it is undeniable that it will impact the rest of the world.”
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De Gucht reassured the audience that the EU has no desire to undermine the multilateral rules-based trade system or its relationship with other trading partners. It is trying to move the WTO Doha Round forward by making customs procedures more efficient and through an agreement on trade in services that would include 22 key WTO members, he said. The TTIP “must be seen in the same light as these efforts,” he said, not as a threat to the multilateral system. “The purpose of this deal is not to gang up on anyone.”
The EU and U.S. have opened their economies more than most countries, but problems remain, De Gucht said. The most important new issue negotiators will have to consider is regulation, he said. Barriers caused by technical regulations and standards are more important than tariffs in blocking transatlantic commerce, he said. Creative and flexible solutions are needed, he said. Regulation exists to protect citizens from risks to health, safety, financial well-being and the environment, and the TTIP shouldn't undermine those protections, he said. But it may be possible to recognize the two regimes as equivalent, lowering compliance costs, or converge regulation in some cases, or focus on future rules to make sure differences are eliminated before they're set in stone, he said.
Whatever the EU and U.S. do will serve as a “laboratory for new global rules,” De Gucht said. The economic benefits of the TTIP won't be confined to the transatlantic area but will help other trading partners, he said. Any standards created by the TTIP will have weight globally because they will apply in half the world's economy, he said.
De Gucht also called for a new global compact on free trade that “recommits all WTO members, developed and developing, to the principles of open markets.” Only such an agreement will unlock the Doha Round and allow everyone to move toward greater trade liberalization, he said.
The first round of free trade talks between the EU and Japan ended successfully, the European Commission said April 19. It's a “big negotiation with some difficult issues,” said Mauro Petriccione, who leads the EU delegation. The countries are aiming for a comprehensive agreement in goods, services and investment that cuts out tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and that addresses other matters such as public procurement, regulation, competition and sustainable development, the EC said. The next round is in Tokyo June 24-28, it said.