EU Focusing on Sectoral Trade Issues With US Rather Than TTIP, European Commission VP Says
The European Union has dropped any expectations it had for the U.S. to resume negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and is approaching trade talks with the Trump administration on a sectoral basis instead, European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told reporters in Washington Oct. 17. “We have the understanding that TTIP is not on the agenda of the current [Trump] administration,” he said during an event at the Atlantic Council. “We are not dreaming on anything. So that’s why one of the options is to explore sectoral problems, which we can address by having regulatory cooperation.” The EU hopes for progress in regulatory harmonization across the U.S. and EU automobile, cosmetic and medical device sectors, and to address trade barriers “one by one, on a sectoral basis, if trade negotiations are not possible,” Katainen told reporters after the event. The EU stands ready to restart TTIP talks if there is political will in the U.S., he said.
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Anders Aslund, resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center, who moderated the event discussion, said the EU is leading the world in establishing global trade standards through several ongoing free trade agreement negotiations, and asked Katainen whether the U.S. “reluctance” to engage other countries on such a scale helps the EU. “Yes,” Katainen responded. “This is what happens. It’s true. But it doesn’t mean that we want to benefit at the expense of the United States. We are ready to cooperate; we want to cooperate with the United States.”
Another mechanism for further potential trans-Atlantic cooperation could be the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)-led Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity and other efforts to combat global steel overcapacity, Katainen said. A meeting between Katainen and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross this week touched on standards and cooperation in dealing with "serial dumpers" and "other enforcement issues," a Commerce Department spokesman said in an email. The Trump administration shouldn’t take any unilateral action to curb unfair trade practices involving steel, and could rather undertake aligned efforts with the EU at the World Trade Organization or engage with the EU and Japan to pressure China into stopping its unfair steel trade practices, Katainen said. The Trump administration is still considering whether to assess tariffs, quotas or other import restraints, as a result of a Section 232 investigation started in April (see 1704200029). The EU’s new antidumping duty calculation methodology squares well with the U.S.’s, and both parties could use trade remedy instruments “jointly” if needed, Katainen said.
Katainen also said the EU hopes the U.S. will drop its block on the launch of a WTO selection process to fill two existing Appellate Body vacancies and another potential one in December (see 1709290010). The WTO’s dispute settlement process is a consistent, multilateral and well-organized way to settle disputes, and the U.S. has nothing to gain from blocking Appellate Body appointments, Katainen said. The issue was raised during his meeting with Ross, who didn’t comment much on the matter, Katainen told reporters. “International institutions are not ideological issues at all,” he said. “You either like them or not, depending on their efficiency to solve problems. All the international institutions are sometimes slow, but at the same time, they are the way to address joint problems. So we don’t understand the reason why well-established multilateral organizations, which have proven to be functional … should be undermined.” The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment.