Ireland's EU commissioner Phil Hogan is urging American negotiators working on the proposed EU-US trade deal to "get on with it" and reach agreement with the Europeans on less controversial issues between the sides.
On a visit to Washington, Mr Hogan, who last November criticised the level of interest shown by the United States in negotiating a transatlantic pact, said that there had been a "higher level of interest" shown by the Americans in the eighth round of negotiations in Brussels two weeks ago.
He is not expecting progress on significant contentious issues such as farming and food production before the US Congress gives President Barack Obama "fast-track" approval to agree deals known as the "trade promotion authority", which is expected in the early part of this year, or on the negotiation of an agreement with the Asia-Pacific region first. There are 16 "chapters" under which the European Union and US must agree a deal before a ninth round of negotiations in April and a 10th in July.
Regulatory barriers
“A lot of those chapters will not be contentious so why not continue with the work on those?” Mr Hogan said.
The agreement, known formally as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, is aimed at reducing tariffs and regulatory barriers to create more jobs and stronger trading links in a pact that the EU estimates could boost its economy by €120 billion.
Mr Hogan, on his first visit to the US as commissioner for agriculture and rural development, is meeting secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack and Mr Obama's trade representative Michael Froman, who is leading American negotiators in discussions on a trade deal.
The commissioner hoped that the US would “engage constructively and meaningfully” this year so that an agreement might be reached by March 2016, before the start of the 2016 presidential election campaign. Failure to meet that deadline would push talks into 2017, he said.
Irish beef
In the wake of the Obama administration dropping a 17-year ban on the sale of Irish beef in the US, Mr Hogan said that he would be pushing Mr Vilsack to remove “non-trade barriers” on EU agricultural products.
Six EU countries – the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Denmark – have applied to sell beef product in the US and are looking to use the Irish opening "to make progress," said Mr Hogan.
“I will be emphasising to US secretary Vilsack the need for him to act on removing those non-trade barriers as quickly as possible not just as a gesture of goodwill to the negotiations but as the right thing to do if you are serious about having an EU-US trade deal,” he said.
Mr Hogan said he would stress in meetings with US officials the unintended consequences of economic sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine on eastern European food producers. He didn't think the Americans were "as aware as they should be" of these effects, he said.
He expects the commission to conclude its policy on US genetically modified foods, a major area of contention, by the end of April. The EU and US “can work out solutions” on the 10 domain names that have yet to be registered relating to geographical indications or copyright around food such as champagne, he said.
