Sen. Hatch, Rep. Brady Call on EU, US to Work Toward High-Standard TTIP
The EU must work more diligently with the U.S. to negotiate a comprehensive, high-standard Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership for the deal to pass Congress, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman (here). U.S. and EU officials are undertaking the 15th round of negotiations in New York Oct. 3-7.
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EU negotiators haven’t “appeared committed” to U.S. goals of full tariff elimination, including in the agriculture sector, and haven’t engaged meaningfully on cross-border data flows and data localization requirements, the lawmakers wrote. “We also have not seen sufficient progress on sanitary and phytosanitary issues and are troubled by the EU’s attempts to include geographical indicators (GIs) in the agreement and to export its GI system to other countries,” they said. “Also concerning is the EU’s apparent unwillingness to include an adequate mechanism in the agreement for the effective resolution of investment disputes.” The lawmakers also called on the final TTIP to foster transparent, cooperative and coherent regulatory practices regarding intellectual property rights (IPR).
Hatch and Brady jabbed at the EU for expressing “an inability and an unwillingness” to complete TTIP by the end of 2016, saying its negotiating tactics have amounted to “hostage taking.” But even if talks don’t conclude this year, negotiators should continue and elevate discussions toward a high-standard agreement, because the U.S. government has the political will to do so. “Congress will not accept an abbreviated or low-standard agreement simply because the Europeans have run out the clock,” the lawmakers wrote. “TTIP must be a single undertaking.” EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom two weeks ago acknowledged that TTIP negotiations won’t likely conclude before the end of the Obama administration (see 1609260023).
Meanwhile, a report released by nongovernmental organizations Health Action International, the Commons Network and Public Citizen urges the EU and U.S. to resist pressure from pharmaceutical companies and omit an IPR chapter from TTIP, because that type of regulation could force consumers to pay more for drugs, the groups said (here). Such a chapter would undermine ongoing democratic public debate, and could lock the U.S. and EU into a failed model of innovation that doesn't address priority health needs, the organizations said.