USTR, EU Vow TTIP Transparency, Committed to 2014 Deadline, Say Officials
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative recognizes the calls and need for transparency in the TTIP negotiation process, said Dan Mullaney, assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and chief U.S. TTIP negotiator, during a press conference July 13. “There is an intense focus on transparency,” he said, calling it “a need we take very seriously.” Mullaney pointed to the opportunities for stakeholder input and engagement as examples of the process’s transparency, as well as the USTR letter to Congress in March notifying legislators of USTR’s objectives going into the negotiations (here). USTR received 370 comments from stakeholders prior to the first round of negotiations and had 350 stakeholders attend stakeholder engagement events during last week’s round, including 50 stakeholders that gave presentations to the negotiators (see 13071113), he said. “We’re working very hard to conduct an open and transparent process.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Negotiators discussed trade topics including intellectual property rights, localization requirements, e-commerce and telecommunications, Mullaney said. These topics, as well as others including investment, government procurement and market access, are the topics negotiators are “intent to cover” in TTIP, said Chief EU TTIP negotiator Ignacio Garcia-Bercero. . During last week’s discussions, negotiators identified “certain areas of convergence” and divergence within each trade topic, he continued.
Negotiators are committed to meeting the 2014 deadline for TTIP, Mullaney and Garcia-Bercero said. “As I think we’ve demonstrated with this first round ... we’re very interested in moving expeditiously” while still trying to get the negotiations done right, Mullaney said. The process has “very considerable high level political support” and “is being watched very closely by the highest levels in my organization,” he continued. The next round will be in Brussels, “which we aim to hold sometime in October,” Garcia-Bercero said. -- Kate Tummarello