Although plans to launch negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the United States and the European Union were announced this week by the White House and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, administration officials reminded interested parties that the U.S. Congress must be officially notified about the intentions to secure a free trade agreement. That notice will prompt a 90-day review period by Congress. Also, the EU Commission and member states must approve a negotiating mandate before the European Union can officially engage in talks. Most observers expect the process on both sides of the Atlantic to move forward at a pace that will allow for face-to-face negotiations to begin by mid-2013.
The National Chicken Council on Thursday issued a statement with the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council, U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, and National Turkey Federation expressing support for the U.S.-EU trade pact.
The final report from the EU High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth concluded that a comprehensive trade and investment agreement would provide the most significant mutual benefit of the options it considered. The report said such an agreement should aim to achieve ambitious outcomes in the areas of market access, regulatory issues, and non-tariff barriers as well as rules, principles, and new modes of cooperation. The report pointed out that “a significant portion of the benefit of a potential transatlantic agreement turns on the ability of the United States and European Union to pursue new and innovative approaches to reduce the adverse impact on trade and investment of non-tariff barriers, with the aim of moving progressively toward a more integrated transatlantic marketplace.”
Toward this end, the working group recommended that, during negotiations the two sides should explore new means of addressing non-tariff trade barriers; seek to make early and continuing progress on sanitary and phytosanitary measures affecting bilateral trade; establish a framework for identifying opportunities for and guiding future regulatory cooperation, including provisions that provide an institutional basis for future progress; and meet periodically at senior levels to review progress made on the above elements with the aim of ensuring that the horizontal and sectoral elements of the negotiations proceed expeditiously and in parallel and that the two sides are able to achieve ambitious outcomes by the end of the negotiations.
The final working group report was reportedly delayed about six weeks because of the administration’s hesitance to proceed without good confidence that negotiations would yield a resolution of what have proven to be some of the most intractable trade irritants between the world’s two largest economies. Sufficient assurances had been received from the European Union that they have the willingness to work to achieve a workable outcome.
In a February 12 letter, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, (D-MT), and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT), said that “broad bipartisan congressional support” for a free trade agreement depends on outcomes including “increased agricultural market access and firm EU commitments to base sanitary and phytosanitary measures on sound science.” The Senators added that a successful agreement will have to “promote the highest standards of intellectual property protection (IPR),” although the report appeared to downplay prospects for progress on this issue by recommending only that the two sides “explore opportunities to address a limited number of significant IPR issues of interest to either side.” Senators Baucus and Hatch also warned against weakening U.S. regulatory protections through any regulatory harmonization efforts.
Although no replacement for U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has been announced, that fact is not expected to slow the timetable toward actually starting negotiations. Administration officials have said they would like to conclude an agreement “on one tank of gas,” and EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht said February 13 that the European Union would “like to complete this work in about two years from now.” However, with the ongoing negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership soon to begin their fourth year, it can be noted that not much progress on the most politically sensitive issues have been made in the TPP talks.
