France’s foreign trade minister said Friday the U.S. needs to make more concessions in ongoing negotiations on a trade pact with the EU or it risks killing the deal.
“To negotiate successfully, both sides have to be willing. Currently, we have the feeling that that’s not the case on the U.S. side,” Matthias Fekl told the German newspaper Handelsblatt, referring to the latest round of talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). “Europe has made many proposals, and there are very few serious counter-proposals on the American side.”
After more than 2 1/2 years of negotiations, several sticking points remain in the TTIP talks, including: the removal of discrimination against European companies that want to bid for public contracts in the U.S., efforts to increase the protection of geographical indications as food brands, and the EU proposal to reform a controversial dispute resolution system between foreign investors and states.
“If there are no concessions on access to public markets in the United States, on the protection of geographical indications and on the investment court system, then the question is why we’re even still negotiating,” Fekl said.
“If the Americans don’t make concessions … there will be no TTIP” — Matthias Fekl
Although individual EU countries have no direct say in the TTIP negotiations, which are led by the European Commission, their influence is still strong since the governments of all 28 members will need to sign off on the deal once it is concluded — as will the European Parliament and most likely national parliaments.
European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said Thursday in a speech in Washington that any conclusion the EU and U.S. can’t move forward on trade this year “is wrong.”
“We are not there yet, but we are moving forward,” she said.
Malmström pitched a revamped version of the investor-state dispute settlement system, known as ISDS, last September. She wants to turn it into a permanent court with 15 independent judges, public procedures, and an appeal mechanism.
Last week Malmström scored a victory when she succeeded in including her court proposal in an already negotiated trade agreement between the EU and Canada, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
Fekl thinks the same should apply to TTIP.
“France won’t accept any free-trade agreement which does not include an investment court like the one agreed upon in CETA,” he said. “If the Americans don’t make concessions in this point, there will be no TTIP.”
Both the EU and U.S. are aiming to resolve most of their difference before the end of July and then conclude the negotiations by year-end, before U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” said U.S. trade negotiatior Dan Mullaney in late February, after the most recent round of talks. However, both sides have to speed up the talks, he said, so “if we can sustain our current intensified engagement, we can finish the negotiations this year.”
Bernd Lange, chairman of the Parliament’s international trade committee, echoed Fekl’s demand Friday for more engagement from Washington.
“If we want to make progress, both sides must bring serious offers to the negotiation table,” Lange said. “But there’s currently nothing like that within sight on the U.S. side.”