The European Commission today published a raft of texts setting outEU proposals for legal text in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) it is negotiating with the US. This is the first time the Commission has made public such proposals in bilateral trade talks and reflects its commitment to greater transparency in the negotiations. ‘I’m delighted that we can start the new year by clearly demonstrating through our actions the commitment we made to greater transparency just over a month ago,’ said EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. ‘Today’s publication of our specific legal proposals in the context of TTIP marks another first in EU trade policy.’ The so-called ‘textual proposals’ published today set out the EU’s specific proposals for legal text that has been tabled in the proposed TTIP.
They set out actual language and binding commitments which the EU would like to see in the parts of the agreement covering regulatory and rules issues. The eight EU textual proposals cover competition, food safety and animal and plant health, customs issues, technical barriers to trade, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and government-to-government dispute settlement (GGDS, not to be confused with ISDS). Today, the Commission has also published TTIP position papers explaining the EU’s approach on engineering, vehicles, and sustainable development, bringing the total number of position papers it has made public up to 15. Here to read more.
