EU-U.S. trade talks move further as 2nd round of negotiations close
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E-mail Xinhua, November 16, 2013
Trade talks between the European Union (EU) and the United States have moved a step further as the week-long second round of negotiations concluded Friday.
"We are advancing step by step," EU chief negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero said at a press conference after the conclusion of the second round of negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
"We worked intensively on a number of sectors to strengthen the compatibility of our regulations," Bercero added.
U.S. chief negotiator Dan Mullaney also hailed the negotiations, saying it has "given us an opportunity to probe more deeply into our approaches."
Continuing from where they left off in the first round in July, the negotiators discussed investment rules, trade in services, and energy and raw materials, the European Commission said in a statement after the negotiations.
The talks also involved a range of regulatory issues, including regulatory coherence, technical barriers to trade and sectoral approaches.
Video conferences also took place covering plant health and hygiene measures, intellectual property rights, competition policy and small and medium enterprises, according to the statement.
Discussions continued on comparing respective approaches to investment liberalisation and protection, and comparing their respective approaches on cross-border services, financial services, telecommunications and e-commerce, said the statement.
On regulatory issues, both sides agreed on the importance of horizontal rules and specific commitments in sectors.
"Negotiators, including regulatory experts, had a solid discussion on regulatory coherence and on possible elements for a chapter on technical barriers to trade going beyond WTO disciplines," it said.
They are scheduled to held their next round of TTIP talks in Washington DC in the week of Dec. 16. After this round, the two parties will identify areas of convergence and areas where political guidance might be needed, the Commission said. Endi
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