US, EU Progress on TTIP, Hope to Conclude Negotiations by January

The U.S. and EU made "significant advances in the regulatory area" last week during the latest round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Treaty in Brussels, as both parties hope to reach "an advanced stage of text consolidation across the board" by July, narrowing negotiations to the most sensitive issues in hopes of concluding negotiations by the end of 2016, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement released Feb. 29 (here). The U.S. and EU progressed in hashing out common objectives they want to achieve in the automobile, pharmaceutical, and medical device sections of the deal, and the U.S. put forth "substantive proposals" on customs and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and rules of origin, USTR said. The office reiterated that it seeks an elimination on all tariffs between the U.S. and EU, despite the two parties agreeing to an elimination of only 97 percent of tariffs during the last TTIP negotiating round in October. "We want to finish this year, but we do not favor an 'early harvest' or a 'T-TIP light,'" USTR said. "We want an ambitious, comprehensive and high standard agreement."