EU-US Free Trade Agreement - Tough Negotiations Ahead

The EU and US scheduled negotiations on the free-trade agreement in July planning to conclude the process in two years time, according to the EU envoy in Washington João Vale de Almeida. Celebrations of Schuman Day this May were marked by putting forward the ambition of perspective Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: 'This is a game-changer..This is a mother of all free-trade areas' claims de Almeida.

Potentially the agreement could cover half the world's economic output and about a third of global trade.

Despite the economic challenges in the EU and United States, the Europe is open for business and trade, says the EU top diplomat Catherine Ashton. "I was recently in China. (They) were very, very interested in what this meant, not just for us, but also for them," she said, in an apparent reference to Chinese concerns the agreement could adversely affect their exports.

The United States is already negotiating another free trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership with 11 countries in the Asia Pacific region, so there is symmetry in the moniker for the proposed U.S.-EU pact.
HR Ashton finds that the perspective agreement is  "bizarrely named ... I call it a free trade agreement. I can't get my head around TTIP." (Tee-TIP)

The expected negotiations will not be easy as France said it would block proposed negotiations unless cultural sectors, such as television and radio, were excluded from the talks.

"The position of France is that we want exclusion from discussion of cultural items. This is non-negotiable. It is not a surprise. I have said it and if we do have exclusion, we will have no agreement," - the French Trade Minister Nicole Bricq told in Dublin earliner this spring. "This is a sine qua non condition for our country."

Members of the U.S. Congress also want the pact to tackle longtime barriers to U.S. farm products, potentially requiring many European countries to overcome their aversion to importing U.S. genetically modified crops.
It will be "a long difficult process of negotiations. We have of course the best negotiators on the European side. But we respect a lot the American negotiators," Vale de Almeida said to laughter from the crowd.
Last week, President Barack Obama nominated Mike Froman to be the next U.S. Trade Representative, effectively charging his longtime friend and chief international economic affairs adviser with the task of completing the U.S.-EU deal.

A trade pact between the United States and the European Union would encompass half the world's economic output and a third of all trade, and be the most ambitious trade accord since the 1995 formation of the World Trade Organization.
Ireland, which holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union, aims to secure EU-wide agreement on the start of negotiations at a meeting set for June 14.

An EU source said one other member state shared France's view on excluding cultural sectors.
Bricq said the audio-visual sector in the European Union employed a million people and was worth 17 billion euros per year.
Those members willing to include the audio-visual sector in the trade talks say that excluding it would probably prompt the United States to reject certain EU demands, such as recognition that certain product names, such as Camembert cheese, can only be used for products from a specific region.

"If we set up red lines, the United States will do the same," - said Swedish Trade Minister Ewa Bjorling.
Some forecasts suggest an EU-U.S. deal could add 0.5 percent to the EU economy and 0.4 percent to the U.S. economy by 2027, at a time when the euro zone is in recession and the United States is expanding only modestly.

Bricq questioned these figures, cited by the European Commission, and said a trade agreement would not provide a quick-fix for Europe's malaise.
"It would be naive to think that the discussions, which will be long and difficult ... will really save Europe from the current anemia," she said. Bircq added that is not opposing to a free trade deal and that the launch of talks on June 14 did not depend on France alone.
"I cannot alone fix the date, but I have the capacity with others to move forward," she said.

Irish Trade Minister Richard Bruton earlier told that Ireland is committed to providing the Commission with a mandate to start talks by June 14:
"We can't predict the outcome, but there is a unique constellation of ambition, need, political will and this is an opportunity that will be seized".

Anna van Densky