European Commission
Brussels, 4 November 2013
EU and US to hold second round of trade
negotiations (TTIP) in Brussels on 11-15 November
The EU and the US today announced they will
hold a second round of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
(TTIP) talks in Brussels from Monday 11th
– Friday 15th November 2013. The week-long round of
negotiations replaces the talks originally scheduled for 7th-11th October which
were postponed due to the shutdown of the US government. This round of
negotiations will now put the TTIP discussion process fully back on track in
terms of the planned negotiation timeline.
The teams of negotiators from either side of
the Atlantic are expected to discuss services, investment, energy and raw
materials, and regulatory issues. The negotiations' session on public
procurement had taken place before the shutdown.
The talks in Brussels will be followed by a
third round of negotiations to be held in Washington DC the week of the 16th
December.
Information
for stakeholders:
The European Commission will organise a
briefing session for stakeholders during the second round of the negotiations
on Friday 15 November. Non-governmental
organisations, consumer groups, trade unions, professional organisations,
business and other civil society organisations will have the opportunity to
exchange views with chief negotiators of both sides. Participants can register here.
Information
for media:
On Friday 15 November, at 3.30pm, the chief
negotiators Ignacio Garcia Bercero and Dan Mullaney will brief the media on the
record in a press conference at the European Commission. The press conference will be broadcast on
Europe by satellite (EbS) for broadcasters and can be followed live via a web stream.
Background
The second round of talks follows on from the
successful negotiations held from 8-12 July (IP/13/691).
The aim of the Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership is to liberalise trade and investment between the EU and
the US. It is expected to result in more jobs and growth and
assist Europe in its long-term recovery from the economic crisis.
The EU and the US make up 40% of global economic
output and their bilateral economic relationship is already the world’s
largest. An independent study by the
Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, forecasts that an ambitious and
comprehensive deal could see the EU gaining €119 billion a year once fully
implemented. EU exports to the US could
rise by 28%, earning exporters of goods and services an extra €187 billion
annually. Consumers will benefit too
with an average family of four living in the EU being €545 better off every
year (MEMO/13/211).
The European Union and the United States have
their eyes on more than just removing tariffs.
Tariffs between them are already low (on average only 4%) so the main
hurdles to trade lie 'behind the border' in regulations, non-tariff barriers
and red tape. Estimates indicate that
80% of the overall potential wealth gains of a trade deal will come from
cutting costs imposed by bureaucracy and regulation, as well as from
liberalising trade in services and public procurement.
Improving regulatory cooperation will aim at
creating similar regulations on both sides of the Atlantic rather than having
to try to adapt them at a later stage.
The goal is to build a more integrated transatlantic marketplace, while
respecting each side's right to regulate in a way that ensures the protection
of health, safety and the environment at a level it considers appropriate. Both sides hope that by aligning their
domestic standards, they will be able to set the benchmark for developing
global rules. Such a move would be
clearly beneficial to both EU and US exporters, but it would also strengthen
the multilateral trading system.
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