The TTIP Negotiations Are In Full Swing In 2016 To Complete The Agreement.

The thirteenth round of negotiations between the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the the Atlantic and (Investment) was held on 25~29 April.

The United States and Europe held a stakeholder meeting in New York in April 28th. The differences between the two sides were mainly in agricultural policy.

Negotiators said that in addition to agricultural policies, there were differences in views on government procurement, services and investment protection.

The fourteenth round of negotiations is expected to be held in Europe in July.

Some representatives of the participating negotiators believe that the plan to complete the text of the agreement at the end of 2016 is still feasible, but there are still some difficulties that must be overcome.

The negotiators remain optimistic that the new US government will retain most of its agreement after taking office in January and make minor adjustments to the text of the agreement.

U.S.A

European affairs director Workman (Garrett Workman) said that although the two sides had indeed strengthened the participation of TTIP negotiations, however, because the challenges faced by the US and European sides in approving TTIP were different, some of the issues were not as good as expected.

The text of the TTIP agreement contains 25~30 chapters covering nine topics. Negotiators continue to wrestle with energy, engineering, financial services, pesticides or other topics to discuss whether these issues should be integrated into different chapters of the agreement or included in an independent chapter.

The goal of the US and Europe is to complete the agreement in the fourteenth round of negotiations, even if that is the case.

There is still some controversy and additional work. Negotiators still refuse to streamline TTIP. The reason is that a comprehensive agreement should not exclude controversial issues. It is considered that the goal of completing the agreement in early 2016 or early 2017 is challenging but possible.

Continuing to promote the protection of Geographical Indications (GI), this topic involves many interests. Maurice, vice president of the National Milk Producers Federation (Shawna Morris), said that the barriers to non-tariff trade are quite complicated, which impedes the entry of American enterprises into the EU dairy market. To remove these obstacles, there is still a long way to go in the future.

TTIP's follow-up development focuses on the progress of negotiations on agriculture, services, government procurement and investment protection.

The US negotiators continue to promote the application of genetic technology or biotechnology to agricultural products. The European Union is quite resistant to this.

The US agricultural standpoint holds that biotechnology is safer and more environmentally friendly, and can raise food production standards. The EU proposes food safety and other issues.

Market entry is also part of the agricultural debate.

Floyd D. Gaibler, the US Grain Association's trade policy and biotechnology director, said that in 2015 the United States had a total surplus of about 16 billion US dollars in global agricultural trade in 2015, but it had a trade deficit of 12 billion US dollars for European agriculture. Restrictive tariffs were still a problem for us farmers, but the issue of genetic and biotechnological pformation of agricultural products was more complicated than tariffs.