Monday, December 16 and Tuesday, December 17 at the Third Round of T-TIP Negotiations in Washington, D.C.
U.S. and EU teams met today in Washington D.C. for the first day of the third round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP).
Negotiators responsible for services, government procurement, energy and raw materials, sanitary and phytosanitary barriers, intellectual property rights, labor and trade issues, textiles, small- and medium-sized enterprises, regulatory coherence, and sectoral regulatory approaches began their work on Monday, and will hold additional meetings other days this week.
Press inquiries should be directed to Anne Eisenhower at AEisenhower@ustr.eop.gov for the U.S. Trade Representative and John Clancy at john.clancy@ec.europa.eu for the European Union.
Wednesday, December 18 and Thursday, December 19 at the Third Round of T-TIP Negotiations in Washington, D.C.
Yesterday, at the mid-point of the third round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) negotiations, U.S. and EU negotiators took time to share information with and hear viewpoints from more than 350 stakeholders from environmental, consumer, and other non-governmental organizations, labor unions, business, and academia.
U.S. Chief Negotiator Dan Mullaney and EU Chief Negotiator Ignacio Garcia-Bercero and their teams participated in a three-hour session which included more than 50 policy presentations that covered a range of issues including consumer and food safety, innovation, and agriculture. The session offered these stakeholders an opportunity to provide negotiators valuable feedback on negotiating objectives for T-TIP. The chief negotiators then briefed stakeholders on the status of the talks and answered questions about the proposed agreement.
A number of T-TIP negotiating groups also continued their work today, focusing on services; market access; competition; trade facilitation; sectoral issues; investment; textiles; labor and environment; intellectual property rights, and technical barriers to trade.
Press inquiries should be directed to Anne Eisenhower at AEisenhower@ustr.eop.gov for the Office of the United States Trade Representative and John Clancy at John.Clancy@ec.europa.eu for the European Union.
Friday, December 20 Statement by U.S. Trade Representative Froman on the Conclusion of the Third Round of T-TIP Negotiations
Washington, D.C. – United States Trade Representative Michael Froman issued the following statement at the conclusion of the third round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) negotiations:
“As 2013 comes to a close, I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made in these early months of the T-TIP negotiations. In addition to the three rounds of negotiations we have conducted since we launched the negotiations in June, our teams have been engaging with each other between rounds, and working hard back home to prepare for productive meetings. It is a measure of progress that we are firmly in the phase of discussing proposals on core elements of each of the main negotiating areas, as well as beginning to confront and reconcile our differences on many important issues. We have a lot of work to do in 2014, but I am optimistic about what we’ll be able to accomplish in the coming year. There is strong conviction on both sides that we have the opportunity in T-TIP to make our trade relationship a substantially stronger driver of transatlantic jobs, growth, and competitiveness.”
Negotiators are planning discussions in early 2014, in order to make additional progress before the fourth round, which will be scheduled during the first quarter of 2014 in Brussels.
