United States Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman was relaxed, bullish and optimistic during the April 2016 State International Development Organization (SIDO) meeting, as he discussed the US ongoing trade negotiations, notably the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The plan agreed by USTR with their European Union (EU) counterparts, is to deliver TTIP by December 2016. If not, TTIP could well be booted down the road, even shelved for years! Also during the SIDO occasion, EU Ambassador to the US, David O’Sullivan, confirmed the agreed sense of urgency. Both EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Froman will “do what it takes”, upping the tempo of their meetings and negotiations, to get TTIP done before the end of the Obama administration. That’s the now or never plan.
Froman is President Obama’s congenial principal advisor, negotiator and spokesperson on international trade and investment issues. The USTR mandate is to “open global markets for U.S. goods and services, enforce America’s rights in the global trading system, and foster development through trade”. The timeframe imperative is dictated by the tail end of the Obama administration, the raucous (including anti trade rhetoric) Presidential elections (all the way until November 2016) which will then lead to the lame-duck months between presidents (November 2016 to January 2017). Looking to the next administration, nothing can be taken as a given: the negative messaging by the front running candidates from both the Republicans and the Democrats has surprised everyone, both in and outside the US, committed to world trade. The inside word from “The Hill” is get it done now, while we can. As an indication as to what we can look forward to after 01.2017, most of the questions Froman fielded were concerned with what to make of the trade bashing, how seriously to take it and how to counterbalance.
The EU and US finished the 12th TTIP round of negotiations, which took place in Brussels, 22-26 February 2016, with joint statements read by the EU Chief Negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero, “We're working towards the objective of negotiating an ambitious, high standard TTIP agreement that responds to both EU and US interests. We are ready to seek to conclude our negotiations in 2016, provided that the substance is right. So we must ensure we pick up the pace and give the necessary impulse to get this agreement right”. Read the detail of the work completed on the so called three pillars of the agreement – i. e. market access, the regulatory cluster and rules. Both sides are committed, the stage is set for two additional rounds of negotiations before the summer, with regular contacts between the negotiating teams between rounds and meetings (suggested bi-weekly) between Malmström and Froman. London was the most recent setting for a meeting, as the two met on Monday April the 11th, to set the agenda for completion.
The EU Commission (EC) is playing its part to hustle the process along. EU transparency, or lack of, has been an issue throughout these negotiation. So in the last months the EC has published 19 further documents from the ongoing negotiations on TTIP, including most recently (02.2016) the EU proposal on regulatory cooperation. Regulatory cooperation is both an innovative and a key pillar of TTIP. EU and US regulatory cooperation is top of the agenda and has produced positive results covering aviation and marine safety to organic labels, electric cars and smart grids. There is more to be added to this list. The point is that there is tangible and meaningful progress.
The next round, the 13th EU-US negotiations on TTIP, has been set for 25-29 April in New York. The USTR will host a stakeholder forum to provide an update on negotiations and solicit input and feedback from interested stakeholders. My bet is on Malmström and Froman doing what is necessary to deliver TTIP by December 2016.
