Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Report of the 13th Round of TTIP Negotiations; Sanitary and Phytosanitary Issues and Agricultural Goods

During the TTIP 13th round of negotiations, "negotiators discussed proposed articles on import checks, certification, the set-up of a Committee structure, emergency measures, transparency, audits, anti-microbial resistance, animal welfare, modern agriculture technologies and trade facilitation to map out objectives and possible ways forward. Good discussions took place on import checks. Both parties agreed on maintaining risk based import checks. Further progress was made on certification, Committees, audits and verification. The EU indicated it does not support a US proposal on modern agricultural technologies.

On animal welfare, the Parties had a first detailed discussion of their respective expectations and concerns. The EU explained the nature of its proposed animal welfare provisions. It was noted that the regulatory approach differs significantly in the EU and US. The EU described the expectations of its legislature and stakeholders. The EU explained its proposal in more detail. The EU answered questions from the US. The EU insisted on the importance of animal welfare provisions in trade agreements and the relevance of the matter for SPS.

On anti-microbial resistance (AMR), a technical presentation by the US was made illustrating the US efforts on AMR domestically and internationally. The EU stressed the importance of joint efforts to fight AMR at all levels in all fora and argued for the inclusion of AMR in the SPS Chapter.

The session on agriculture consisted of three parts: the draft chapter on agriculture, tariffs and non-tariff issues.

As regards the consolidated text on agriculture, good progress was achieved with respect to the least controversial provisions, such as cooperation, committee on agriculture, and spirits, for which the EU had presented a textual proposal in the February round. The Parties maintained their diverging positions regarding other aspects of the chapter.

Regarding tariffs, the discussion centered upon products within the 97% of lines covered by the second offer, with each side flagging specific export interests and requests to reduce proposed staging periods. Products identified as the most sensitive were not reviewed. Finally, the two sides continued discussing specific non-tariff issues related to agriculture."


Source: Report of the 13th Round of Negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (New York, 25-29 April 2016) found at http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2016/may/tradoc_154581.pdf

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