News

The EU and the US are negotiating the so-called "Transatlantic Trade and Investment Parnership (TTIP)", a trade agreement which – according to Commission estimates – could boost overall trade between the EU and US by as much as 50%.

On January 14, 2014, the Commission held a Civil Society Dialogue to give an update on the third negotiation round that took place in Washington from 16 to 20 December. Social Platform participated in this meeting. The Commission was represented by 14 officials from DG Trade, including the Deputy Chief Negotiatior for the TTIP. Almost 200 representatives from a very broad range of civil society organisations attended the meeting (trade unions, employers' associations, environmental NGOs, industry representatives, medical associations, agricultural lobbysts…).

The Commission informed that the third round of negotiations marked a new step, where both parties can move to begin work on text-based negotiations for a number of topics. Concerning the next steps, Commissioner De Gucht and his counterpart from the US will meet again in mid February to review progress. The fourth round will take place in Brussels, probably in March.

We raised the question if social services and other Services of General Interest fall in the scope of this trade agreement. We also asked to be reassured that the new public procurement directive would not be undermined by the TTIP.

The Commission answered that social services (which fit under the category of "public services" in the negotiations) have not yet been raised in the discussions. They added that the EU benefits already from a broad horizontal reservation in this area in the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The Lisbon Treaty is the red line for the Commission on how to negotiate and there are no plans to change this approach with the TTIP.

Concerning public procurement, the recent WTO General Procurement Agreement is the basis for the negotiations. The Commission said: "Of course we need to remain within the limits of our own system, including the directive".

A similar question was raised by the British Medical Association: will health services be in the scope of the negotiations? The answer was that health services had not been discussed yet.

Concerning the protection of labour rights, trade union representatives asked what the EU's level ambition with regards to US ratification of core ILO conventions would be. The Commission answered that the US too, as members of the ILO, must report on progress made towards ratification of core conventions. The Commission is calling for effective implementation of already ratified conventions, as well as sustained efforts for further ratifications.

You can read the Commission's report on the Civil Society Dialogue meeting of January 14. From our side it is clear that we need to continue monitoring the development of the negotiations.