19 October EU-US trade talks

Date: 22/10/1998

US TRADE Representative Charlene Barshefsky visited Brussels for the first time this week since taking up her job three years ago, for meetings with European Commissioners.

THE main purpose of Barshefsky's visit was to make progress on an EU-US plan to encourage trade between the two blocs by lowering barriers.

A spokesman for Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan said that the two sides had made significant steps towards agreeing an 'action plan' for sectors where trade could be opened up. He added that they had come closer to reaching agreement on the outstanding areas of government procurement rules and intellectual property protection. The EU and the US want to agree the action plan in time for the next transatlantic summit on 15 December. Once negotiators have agreed on a common position, Union trade ministers will have to approve it.

IN DISCUSSIONS on the next set of international trade negotiations in the World Trade Organisation, Barshefsky said she was still concerned that covering a wide range of sectors under a so-called Millennium Round could slow up progress towards trade liberalisation, although Brittan claimed that the US was “open minded” about the idea. “I would be astonished if at the end of the day the problem on a round was an American one,” he added.

BRITTAN also brushed aside suggestions from Barshefsky that the Union was failing to comply with WTO rulings on hormone-treated beef and bananas. “The US is entitled to take a different view to the EU but not to take a unilateral view and act on it,” he told a press conference. He warned that any action by the US would undermine the operation of the multilateral trading system and would be taken very seriously by the EU. Barshefsky had argued that the Union should drop its ban on imports of hormone-treated beef before carrying out new scientific studies into possible health risks.

THE Commissioner dismissed suggestions that the Union was not taking its share of imports of cars and steel to help countries hit by financial turmoil. Brittan quoted figures showing that imports of Japanese cars and Russian steel were growing at a faster rate in the EU than the US. He said Union steel imports had risen by 56&percent; in the first five months of 1998 while in the US they had only increased by 12&percent;. Brittan added that it would be unrealistic to bring forward deadlines to end restrictions on imports of Japanese cars, which are set to be lifted next year.

BARSHEFSKY also met Competition Commissioner Karel van Miert to discuss differences over global competition rules. The EU wants competition and state aid issues to be dealt with in the WTO, while the US would prefer a smaller forum of industrialised and developed countries.

EU FOOD aid to Russia, and the issue of Latvia's membership of the WTO were discussed at a meeting with Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek. Barshefsky also discussed food safety issues with Consumer Affairs Commissioner Emma Bonino.